Introduction
The young girl carried on through the village uncaring of the strange looks she received from citizens. She carried on with no particular destination in mind, just the thought that she needed to get help quickly, if any would be kind enough to treat her. Her hair and clothing clung to her, becoming stiff with the multiple layers of dried blood caked on her person. It was everywhere, and even breathing became difficult as she felt the substance clogging her throat.
'I'm going to die…'
She was dying, with no aid from anyone in a marketplace brimming with citizens. In a city buzzing with life, she would lose hers. The irony was not lost on the small girl. None would approach the girl matted with blood, as she struggled to stand upright. She would die the same way she was born, alone and uncared for.
'The very least, let a semblance of my pride remain.'
She trudged into an alleyway, hoping to make the journey into the afterlife quick and painless, though she doubted the pain could worsen. Her eyelids felt heavy, whether it be from the dried blood on them or from the blood that continued to ooze from her hip, she couldn't tell.
Kagome wondered how long it would take her body to decay and how long before someone would steal her weapons. The latter was probably the most upsetting thought of the day.
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If there was one thing Itachi was good at, it was tuning people out.
He had grown up the center of everyone's attention, his name on the tip of everyone's tongue and as such had shamelessly developed a narcissistic attitude he had no inclination to change.Only one person had ever mattered more to the prodigy than himself.
Even now, with a straw hat on his head and his Akatsuki robe on, he still managed to garner the unwanted attention of every civilian in the area. A spotlight he was easily able to remain aloof to as he also ignored the constant conversations his teammate tried to start with him.
He was halfway past a little girl seemingly on the brink of passing before stopping in his tracks. She was not the first child he saw on the verge of death during his trek through the crowded poverty-stricken village, but something was very different about this one.
It might be that she was covered from head to toe in blood. Or that she looked much younger than the others he had seen.
Strange.
"Damn, someone really gave her a beating eh Itachi? I almost feel bad, she's just a little kid."
He chose to ignore his partner Kiasme, opting to continue his one over of the girl before him. She sat lifeless, and the few spots not covered in blood were caked with filth and mud. He could barely pick out the color of her hair through everything but he would guess it was black. She looked starved and reeked of long days in the streets, and her kimono was tattered and torn, leaving her with little to cover up.
Even in such a state, there was still something prideful about her, as though even dying she refused to appear meek. Why?
Giving her a last one over, he turned to leave, having already dismissed the sad excuse of a girl that lay dead on the floor beneath him. He did a short prayer for her traveling soul and already pushed the girl from his mind.
One could only hold his attention for so long.
He had already taken a step, when something told him to glance one last time. He was becoming annoyed at himself for the small infatuation he seemed to be developing for the dying if not dead girl, and glanced once more if not to rid himself of this disgusting desire. He was internally surprised to see her eyelashes flutter ever so lightly, and she looked up at him slowly, almost as if the action alone killed her.
Blue eyes...
She had blue eyes...
Cold, distant, unflinching eyes that held his gaze. A feat much older men and women of status have been unable to accomplish
She would not lower her eyes in pity, refusing to beg for his help. And as such he decided he would offer it to her anyways. .
"Kiasme, pick her up"
Itachi refused to think of what he was doing, refused to acknowledge that he was actually about to help some pathetic little girl simply due to her eyes.
Kiasme looked at him, his face clearly expressing his confusion at his younger partners decision. Bending down, he not so gently plucked the wretched girl from the floor.
He had no qualms fulfilling his partner's desire, but he would not be gentle about it. With a scrunch of his nose at the rancid smell emitting from the small child, Kiasme continued the now quiet trek alongside his teammate.
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When Kagome came to, she realized two things.
Hell wasn't as hot as she thought it to be.
And the man sitting across the room from her was far more attractive than she thought Satan was supposed to be.
He spared her a quick glance before going back to his work, a few scrolls scattered precariously around him.
The room was modest and cozy, and appreciatively warm. It felt to her how a home would feel but her memory of one was vague and she was unsure.
Regardless Kagome felt out of place.
She noticed a bowl of soup and some bread by her futon, and before courtesy could kick in, she reached for it, uncaring if it was for her or not.
"Ano, arigatou?"
She had never before been the recipient of a good deed, and was unsure how to go about expressing her gratitude.
The man continued to ignore her and for a few moments they sat in nothing but quiet.
"You had some really awful wounds."
His voice was deep and slow, and made a shiver run down her spine. He never once spared her a second look, her gaze now focused on his low ponytail. His hair was long and looked like silk down his back. A stark contrast from her thick waves that at times became unmanageable. She wondered what he was doing that he couldn't even spare her a glance.
"Thank you for helping me.."
The man finally placed the scrolls down, turning his attention on her.
Kagome couldn't help but be entrapped by his dark almost lifeless eyes. His eyes were calculating and she wondered how one could appear so shielded, so cold.
"Those weapons you carried, how did they come to fall into your possession."
Itachi had been very surprised to find the small girl had strategically hidden weapons all over her body. However what had garnered the most curiosity from the teenager had been the symbols and engravings found on each one.
The girl never broke eye contact with him, and he wondered how one's eyes could be such a deep blue.
'The jinchuuriki who follows Sasuke around has similiar eyes…'
He thought to himself.
She didn't answer, and he took the time to give her a final one over. The child could barely be more than 14.
She was clean, thanks to his partner, as he had refused to touch the girl in the state she had been in. His earlier assumption was correct, her hair was dark and fell in waves down her back. Porcelain skin, bright blue eyes, and a petite structure contributed to her appearance of a doll. Without a doubt she would be dubbed very pretty by any standards.
"I had found them somewhere, so I just picked them up."
The very apparent lie fell from her lips effortlessly. He didn't bother responding, turning his back to her once more.
He didn't have time for liars.
"Is that so"
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Flashback
"Come now Kagome-chan, it is time for morning prayers."
The 5 year old did not bother to contain her disdain at having to stop the game she had just created. They lived alone on the outskirts of the village and rarely ventured into town so she was very accustomed to playing alone. Her new game had just gotten exciting so her displeasure at being called in was very apparent on her small face.
Her grandmother always ensured she prayed at least four times a day, for reasons she did not know.
Placing her knees on the soft pillow and clutching the prayer beads, she closed her eyes and thought of what to pray for. A new kimono? New hair ribbons?
It's not as though she ever got what she asked for, but you never know. Her grandmother began chanting, her old and frail hands trembling as she sped up her incantation. She loved her grandmother, but she was so old fashioned. As far as she knew, Kagome was the only 5 year old who wore traditional miko clothing.
"Grandmother, I'm done praying, can I go back outside now?"
Her grandmother's eyes remained closed, not having to glance at her granddaughter to know she was lying. Kagome had the tendency to lie quite often.
"Kagome, you understand the importance of these prayers, do ye not? We must keep the sin inside of you chained down, or it will consume you in its disgusting perversion and lust. Child, I beg of ye, pray."
Kagome nodded only understanding half the stuff her Grandmother was spewing.
"Ye must seek out God child. Only he can give you happiness and bliss from all that will pain you. Only he can silence the voice of evil that shall resonate in your head one day. Pray and you shall find him dear. And when you do, cling to him tightly so that you may never lose him, and follow him until you die. Do ye understand Kagome?"
Kagome nodded halfway out the door, still not understanding what her grandmother even spoke of.
It would be two year before she ever would. She was a freak, a disgusting abomination that would have never existed naturally otherwise.
Kagome choked back a sob, her heart almost as heavy as the dying body of her beloved grandmother. Her small arms trembled under the weight but she could not find it in herself to pull away from the only family she'd ever known. She could not think of a moment in her life she did not have the elder woman by her side, but looking down it would seem those moments would occur soon.
Kaede was dying.
She had used her own body to shield her precious granddaughter, her elderly body moving faster than she herself was aware possible when the missing nin made to attack Kagome. As she felt herself dying, Kaede tried to grasp the child's hand one last time, to reassure her it would all be fine, but could barely raise the arm that was almost entirely severed. Her eyes closed as she felt the onslaught of fat tears fall from Kagome's face onto hers. She prayed to the heavens to look out for her, knowing she was leaving too soon.
"Hey boss, what do I do with the kid?"
The nin looked away from the all too familiar scene as his comrades continued looting the modest shrine for anything of value. He did not see the shrouded distant look that befell the small girl as her arms now hung limp at her sides.
"Take her, even if we didn't get anything from here she'll sell for a pretty penny."
He nodded, turning back around and made to reach for her.
An awful sob racked the small girls' body as she shook with a force. Her grandmother was dead. Cruelly taken from her because of these evil men.
Kagome clutched at her chest, the unfamiliar twinge of loss almost suffocating her. In her short life she had never known such heartbreak, such pain.
'Ita, it hurts.'
The tears would not stop falling from her tightly sealed eyes. She prayed if she kept them closed this would all become a terrible nightmare and nothing more.
'Does it hurt little one?'
A voice she did not recognize spoke within the confines of her head. A place where only she should exist.
'I have always been here child. Simply closed off behind the sutras placed on me by that old hag.She is dead but I am still here.'
Was she talking about Kaede baa-chan? She was broken out of her stupor by the rough hands of the missing nin that had been standing over her.
"Well come on now little girly. Boss got plans for you."
He sneered at her, grabbing her by the roots of her hair as he dragged her.
"No! Let go of me! I'm not going to leave my grandma!"
The tears renewed with a vigor as she fought against her captor. Even when the roots of her hair burned and the nin held a kunai to her throat Kagome decided she would die before she left with these men.
'Stupid child! We will not die for a very long time. Especially not at the hands of these disgusting men. Let me out!'
What did she mean? Let her out from where. Kagome didn't even know where the voice was
'Let go of your restraints and I promise to avenge your dear baa-chan. I will teach you what that useless hag never did; how to be strong so none can ever cause you such pain again. Would you not like that?'
It purred the question in her ears and Kagome felt a warmth even as she received a kick to her chest by the nin who tired of her struggles. The crack she heard followed by a searing pain was nothing compared to the pain in her heart she had felt earlier.
'Hai I would. I don't ever want to hurt again.'
Kagome closed her eyes as a flame encompassed her entire body. The pain receded and she could almost feel as the voice took over. A fanged smirk flashed in her mind before all she saw was black.
'Do not hide child. Watch as we stain the earth with your enemies, color the earth crimson with their blood.'
Kagome moved further away, deeper into her mind as she heard their screams and pleas. She was so scared and the once comforting flames began to reach burning temperatures.
'WATCH!'
She was forcefully pushed to the front of her mind as she watched herself tear the nin apart. Rip them asunder with her much smaller arms. The voice was right; as she heard them cry and beg it was like putting ice on a painful burn. She wanted more
'Take as much as you want. When we are finished here there is an entire village not far. All who played a part in my entrapment will pay today'
She did not know what the voice was talking about but she would comply. The blood that rained down on her was cool in comparison to the heat searing through her. It was almost caressing in the way it clung on to her. The voice was demanding but the warmth it had emitted when she was scared was almost maternal. And a voice could not be killed or be taken from her. Maybe she wasn't alone after all.
END OF Flashback
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Kagome woke with a fright, an awful feeling coiling tightly in her chest. She was quick to recognize the familiar emotions that always seemed to appear when she had that flashback
Self loathing, anger, hatred...
The list went on and on. It had been one thing to finish off the men who murdered her grandmother. But she had not stopped there. The voice had demanded she exact revenge on the ones who did it wrong. It was only fair that after helping her, Kagome should help the voice too.
She hadn't wanted the voice to get mad and leave her and as such she proceeded to lay waste to the town her and Kaede baa-chan would frequent on special occasions. Slaughtered men, women, and children alike as per demand. The baker who made the cakes Kaede loved. The florist who Kagome thought had the prettiest flowers. The priest who always visited on her birthdays. She wished she had mourned them more rather than danced in the thrill she had experienced. The electric feeling of power that had coursed through her that day had given her a high that did not permit any room for remorse.
She wasn't sure where she was going, but quietly got up and wrapped the blanket around her small frame.
Tiptoeing down the hall, easily finding her way in the dark as she arrived at her destination.
She stepped in, already mesmerized by the man whose presence seemed to dominate the room.
'She should be tried as an adult!'
Kagome stepped into the room, the former shrills and screams of villagers from the neighboring village demanding her execution resonated through her mind
"This girl is sick! She needs help not a death sentence"
Lowering herself gracefully by Itachi's sleeping figure she recalled the one man that had stood in her defense, a village doctor.
He had told her it wasn't her fault. That she suffered from reactive attachment disorder, personality disorder, and conduct disorder to name a few. He wanted to help her, he said. Told her if she underwent therapy she could get better; be more normal.
She had argued with the voice on how to kill him. Unlike the brutal deaths that befell the other villagers, he was killed in his sleep. It was her way of thanking him for all he had tried to do for her.
The voice was the only constant in Kagome's life, someone who had never left. A mother, a friend, a leader, the voice was all those titles and more. Because of the voice she was never truly alone, and nothing in the world was worse than being alone, abandoned, and uncared for.
She laid down near the sleeping man and stared. What she was looking for she did not know but the voice in her head purred in satisfaction, whispering phrases that had the young girl blushing scarlet.
'Take him little one, you may be young but I guarantee you will please. Take him and the flames will pass.'
Itachi made sure to keep his breathing steady as to not alert the girl he had sensed her entering. His hand was already positioned under the sheets to strike but he waited for her to make a move.
A mind numbing pain she was all too used to causing her to clutch her stomach.
Over the years the flames had become so painful she would be left immobilized for a few moments. She would do anything to make it stop, to end it all, to stop the awful pain in her stomach and her head.
"What are you doing in my room?"
Itachi had gotten impatient with her lack of action choosing to speak up instead. He wasn't expecting the kid to be near tears, clutching her head silently pleading with an unknown entity to make something stop.
He wasn't surprised she was crazy, in all honesty he saw it coming.
"I'll do anything, please, please it hurts so much..."
She continued on with her rambling, still clutching her head tightly, her nails penetrating the skin as small droplets of blood rolled down her arm.
"Where did you get those weapons from?"
He repeated his question from earlier, uncaring the girl looked once more near death. If she was going to die, the least she could do was put his curiosity to rest.
She considered lying but then decided against it. What was the point anymore? She would end up killing him to stop the flames, if only for a moment.
"They were from my clan, the Higurashi clan."
Itachi tried not to let his reaction show, but inwardly he was beyond shocked.
He couldn't believe this mentally deranged little girl hailed from such a prominent clan, one that had at one point been just as esteemed and worshipped as the Uchiha clan.
How was she still alive? His clan had joined along with many others to wipe off the clan that they all feared was becoming too powerful. Along with the alarmingly fast rate in which they had continued to excel was the discovery they had begun experiments on children of their clan in an attempt to genetically modify them into super ninjas with aid from the infamous Orochimaru .
If she truly was from that clan how had she managed….
So deep was he in though, that he barely registered when the small girl threw herself at him, knocking him on his back. She expertly straddled the much older man, her lips on his in a frenzied sloppy kiss. Her hands were woven tightly in his long hair, her crotch grinding unto his.
The voice was right, this was much better than killing him. This felt so so good, and the awful flame in her stomach was replaced by a much more enjoyable heat that seemed to pool in her lower regions. Itachi was absolutely delicious, leaving Kagome's head spinning as she tried to taste all of him.She was high off the sweet taste of his lips and the rough feel of his groin against her had her ecstatic. It was different from the high she experienced surrounded by carnage but God was it just as delicious if not more.
Her tiny hands roamed his muscular upper torso, slim fingers tracing patterns on his skin as she tried to deepen the kiss, and this time, she purred along with the voice in her head.
She continued grinding herself on the man, and was very pleasantly surprised to find a protruding bulge had begun rising.
She loved this so so much.
Kagome wanted Itachi to take her and make her his just as the voice urged her to. The thought of his mark branding her, fantasies of him sliding into her young body had her mewling out in ecstasy. She bit his bottom lip, pleading for entrance, and that action alone was enough to help the young man regain his senses.
In a moment he had thrown the small girl off of him, uncaring that she smashed into the bookshelf, a crack that he didn't care was her back or not, resonating throughout the room.
He was on her in a flash, his kunai ready to end her pathetic life. Never in his life would he have expected some, some...
Itachi didn't even know what to call her
"Explain yourself right now."
He wasn't sure why he didn't just kill her, she had shamed him enough as is. To think he, Itachi, allowed the action to carry on for a couple moments spoke negatively of him as well.
Was he a pervert? Did he enjoy little girls younger than his baby brother? He wanted to kill the girl for her actions, yet the prominent bulge in his pants did not necessarily show repulsion.
Was he a sex deprived freak?
He inwardly shook his head, he knew himself. Her barely developed body did not strike any arousal on his part. He hadn't had the time to lay with any women in the past month, so his body would of course react to a female's advances regardless how unappealing he assured himself he found her.
"I'm sorry I couldn't help it. You might think I'm crazy, but I don't usually do stuff like this. I just wanted it to end."
Kagome looked down in shame and humiliation. What embarrassed her the most was she didn't regret it. The warm feeling in her stomach still had not subsided, and for once she was at ease, comfortable, and the voice in her head was content.
This was bliss.
And the man in front of her had to be God, for only he could deliver her happiness. She would obey her grandmother's last wish, and follow him forever.Not registering the killing intent that was radiating off her 'God', she made a silent vow to follow him to the ends of the world if need be, and swore herself to the man that so easily put out the flames she thought would have driven her to madness.