Changes
Chapter Eight
Awakening
'Ow…my back…' Tsumi woke up from a long dream and rubbed her eyes. 'Sleeping on the forest floors isn't exactly what I call fun,' she growled in her mind. Sitting up, she yawned, stretched her arms, and slapped at the face of her sleeping partner. "Hey, sleeping beauty, stop sleeping like a lazy ass!"
"Aww, I was on guard almost all night! Cut me some slack for guarding your sorry self," Itachi grumbled.
"What was that?"
"Never mind."
Tsumi and Itachi washed up at a nearby creek after packing up their few possessions, and ate a quick breakfast of sushi and sake.
'I still can't believe that so many years have passed by,' Tsumi thought to herself as she burned the remains of their waste incase of unwanted company, 'since I became one…'
"Hurry it up, we don't have all day you know," Itachi scowled.
"Yes, coming," Tsumi responded. 'Maybe I should've just strangled him in his sleep…but he could easily kill me for it,' she contemplated. "Hey, I get to see him today. You promised me."
"I know. You can run along, and I'll just tag a couple miles back," Itachi mumbled.
"Arigato for letting me see him," Tsumi smiled as she walked over and gave him a hug, earning a disgusted-looking face from Itachi.
"What was that for?"
"What was what for?"
"Never mind." he rolled his eyes slightly.
"If you say so." Tsumi turned on her heels, letting her black cloak with a strange, red cloud-like pattern on it billow behind her as she jumped from tree to tree to avoid to be seen.
'I haven't seen him for several years since Itachi-kun…' Tsumi sighed, 'but I hope that he still wants to see me.' She made her way to Konoha where so many old memories hung around, as if telling her to regret what she had become now. She was an S-ranked criminal of Akatsuki along with Itachi. They were bandits, high on the wanted criminals list, now dating - for Tsumi was disowned when Itachi had killed their parents. Sighing again, she slowed down her pace and cautioned herself as she neared her hometown. Sensing Itachi not far behind her and having her back, she relaxed a bit.
'I am no longer a member of the Hidden Leaf; I have no home,' she reminded herself as she stopped abruptly on the branches of a sakura tree and fingered the hitai-ate upon her forehead that she had slashed across with a kunai. "I'm free now," she whispered quietly.
"Well, are you going or not?" somebody whispered in her ear.
Not even needing to flinch, she turned around to face Itachi. "Gone." Jumping off of the tree, she landed on the top of a wall surrounding the village for its safety without making a noise. Cautiously, she ran on the balls of her feet across the bricks and tiles in the shadows until she reached a well-kept house. 'This is it…'
Jumping from the wall, she landed quietly on the roof of the building, hung herself upside down, and peered inside a window of the building. Since it was still early morning, most of the civilians should still be resting, so Tsumi was safe for a while. Squinting slightly, she saw a bed and a lump in it. Smiling to herself, she slid open the window and slipped into the room. Walking soundlessly over to the bed, she squatted on the left side of the motionless figure under the sheets of the bed.
'My…he's changed a lot,' Tsumi thought as she reached out a hand and brushed a strand of hair from Sasuke's eyes. She caressed his soft, pale cheek and breathed in the scent of his house. Sasuke's closed eyes suddenly shot open as he looked up to see a blurry figure sitting beside him. Rubbing his eyes, he saw the one person in the world that he knew he could trust.
"Tsu...mi…?" blinking and rubbing his eyes again, Sasuke couldn't believe what he was seeing. "Is this a dream?" he slapped himself in the face.
"No it's not, Sasuke-kun. I'm really here."
He couldn't be happier to see her. She had changed; but so had he. Tsumi was taller, had more of a figure, and he had to admit, more beautiful. She was sitting beside his pillow, her back against the wall, the farther leg up and her arm resting upon her knee. Her other leg was fairly straight and stretched out, and her other arm down against the wooden board of the floor.
"I missed you so much," he said with a smile. He hadn't smiled in so long; mind you, he almost forgot how to do such a simple thing. Sitting up in his bed, he turned over, wrapped his arms under her cloak and around her waist, giving Tsumi a shocking hug, for she wasn't expecting him to do such a thing. Hugging him back, she kissed his forehead and wrapped her arms around his neck.
"I missed you too," she whispered. A single tear slid down Sasuke's cheek, and Tsumi wiped it away for him. "Missed me that much?" she said jokingly.
"Actually, I did." Tsumi grinned.
"You…my sister? What a joke! I think you were a lot closer to me than that," Sasuke said suddenly, and he leaned in closer and kissed Tsumi on the cheek, making her blush furious shades of bloody red.
"If you say so," Tsumi stuck out her tongue at him.
Watching intently, Itachi sat in a tree and peered through the window. 'He's making a move on my girlfriend?' his eyebrow twitched as he closed his eyes slowly. 'Calm…'
Back in his house, Sasuke was busy trying to make out with Tsumi, who just rigidly kept on blinking. When he finally pulled away, he looked at her with a sly smile. "You have no idea how long I've wanted to do that," he whispered in her ear.
Tsumi was still sitting like before, only blinking at Sasuke's face that was right in front of her. She still couldn't believe him. He went to wash up, changed and then came back.
"Sasuke, I have to get going now," she said quietly.
"How come?" he asked. After all, he did have the right to ask.
"I have…things, to do."
"Oh, ok then. Promise me you'll come back and visit?" Sasuke pleaded.
"I will. Only if you promise not to rat me out on the Hokage and such."
"I swear, I won't tell anybody."
"I knew I could count on you," Tsumi said with a smile as she stood up and walked over to the window. Turning back to Sasuke one last time, she opened the window sill wider and jumped out, onto the wall, and back into the trees. Making her way through the same trees as she did earlier, she met up with an Itachi at a tree that had a look of disgust on his face.
"What was that all about?" he asked coldly.
"What?"
"I saw you sucking face with Sasuke. What's that all about?"
Tsumi gasped. "You mean he was sucking my face? I don't know what he was thinking! He just…!"
There was a long pause. "Let's get going," Itachi said finally.
"Going to where?"
"Back to where we were supposed to meet Kisame," he replied.
"Oh. Okay then."
"Don't worry, I'll let you off the hook this time, though I'm pretty sure that Sasuke couldn't resist and do it again," Itachi said quietly.
"It's not my fault; I didn't want it to happen!" Tsumi whined.
"I know."
"At least you know," she sighed.
"Of course I do. By the way, one question…"
"Hm?"
"I'm better than Sasuke, right?" Leaning in, Itachi wrapped his arms around Tsumi's waist and yeah. "So?"
"Of course you are. Sasuke probably doesn't even know what he's doing," Tsumi replied.
"Good. Glad you agree. Now let's get going." Itachi turned to leave, but turned back to see that Tsumi was staring off in the direction of Sasuke's house, not moving, and lost in thought. "Why must I do everything myself?" he murmured to himself as he picked up Tsumi into his arms and jumped off.
"May I ask what you are doing?" she asked him.
"Well, you weren't moving and all stoned out, so I guess I had to do things myself," he said with a devilish grin and leaned down to kiss her briefly on the tip of her nose.
"Are you jealous of Sasuke?" Tsumi asked suddenly, making him flinch and he almost dropped her.
"Look what you made me do;" he said icily, "I could've killed us both."
"Sorry, but I was curious."
"If you insist."
Itachi carried her farther, deeper into the forest, in silence.
"You know what I think is funny?" Tsumi said suddenly.
"…"
"I had a dream last night. It was pretty amusing, actually."
"And what exactly was this dream about?" Itachi asked with a tone of voice that said that he didn't really care.
"Remember when we first met? It was a dream about our childhood, except our relationship was like how it is now; boyfriend/girlfriend type of thing. It was funny, seeing our six-year-old selves kissing," Tsumi said and broke into a laugh. Itachi only looked down at her with a raised eyebrow and a disgruntled face as he continued jumping along the trees. "Ooh, remember that Mesu kid that used to hit on me all the time?"
Itachi scowled at the name. "Don't remind me of that bastard; we killed him anyway."
"Of course, that's the first thing we did after you pulled me out of our old house."
"…"
"Though I don't feel like talking about that night…"
"…as I don't feel like carrying you any longer." And with that, Itachi dropped Tsumi from his arms in midair, in which she did several twists and landed on all fours. "I see you're still in shape," he called to her as he continued on his way.
"'course I am you retard!" she called back and caught up quickly.
"I thought that you'd be slacking off a bit and needed me to carry you!" he sneered.
"What the hell?" Tsumi gave him the finger, and his eyes flashed dangerously. Whipping himself around, Itachi grabbed her by the waist and swung her on top of his shoulder. "Hey, put me down!" she growled and kicked at his ass.
"Baka, that hurts!"
"…"
Itachi very abruptly threw Tsumi at a tree off guard. Smashing into the hard trunk and almost having the wind knocked out of her, she landed hard on her butt and coughed out some blood.
Itachi walked over and kneeled down beside her, licking the blood off her cheeks and smacking his lips. Tsumi scowled. "Why don't you go and consume somebody else's blood for a change?"
"Because yours tastes so good," he said quietly and he flashed a sly smile.
"Whatever," she replied and rolled her eyes. Trying to pick herself up, her legs were too weak and she instantly fell back down. "Crap," she muttered.
"Need help?" Itachi smirked.
"Not from you, no I don't." After many failed attempts at trying to stand up again, Itachi sighed and scooped her up into his arms; cradling her softly, almost. Bending over, he gave Tsumi a soft kiss as he leapt off again.
Later on…
"You belong to me, Tsumi. Remember that." Itachi tied Tsumi to the trunk of a tree and stood back to admire her blazing eyes.
"Since when?" she snarled.
"Since the day that I freed us from the clasp of the Hidden Leaf," he replied and walked over to her.
"I didn't need any freeing."
Stepping over quietly, Itachi tilted her chin up to look at him straight in the eyes. "If I didn't free us, we wouldn't be able to do this." Pressing his lips to hers, Itachi slowly kissed Tsumi, and yeah. When he finally pulled away, he looked her straight in the eyes.
"What do you mean?"
"We were siblings, baka. That would be sinful and we'd get killed and kicked out of the Leaf for it."
"Not like it would matter anyway," Tsumi scowled as Itachi's finger traced around her jaw line. "Don't touch me."
"You belong to me. I can do whatever I want."
Managing to move her arm around slightly, Tsumi gave Itachi the finger, making him laugh. "Was that supposed to offend me somehow?"
And so, the two carried on with scowls, kissing, dissing and planning out things for the rest of the night as they waited for Kisame to show up.
"What might she be doing tied up against a tree?" the freakish man asked as he arrived painfully slowly.
"I tied her up."
"Hoshigaki, get me out of this crap." Obeying her commands, Kisame walked over and sliced the thick ropes with a kunai.
"There, now stop complaining."
"Arigato. So what'd you want us to meet you here for?"
"I heard that…he…wanted us to capture Kyuubi for Akatsuki. Is that true, Hoshigaki?"
"Mhm. He wants the vessel alive so that Kyuubi does not die before we can retrieve it for him."
"When do we move in?" Tsumi asked, rubbing at her hip where one of the roped had recently been fastened tightly.
"After some spying, yes, we shall move in. However, he wants Hayashibara to pull a fake cover until then, leaving Uchiha and I to attack together."
"So what the fuck am I supposed to do? Do some crazy Genjutsu for a while and use up all of my chakra in hopes of other faggots not hitting on me?"
"Precisely. Oh, and I purchased this a while back but never found the time to show it to you; I think now is the perfect opportunity. Hoshigaki, please, do hold her against the tree," Itachi asked calmly as Kisame quickly grabbed Tsumi before she could get away, and roughly forced her against the trunk. Walking over slowly, Itachi produced a collar that resembled one of an dog, fastened it around Tsumi's neck, and used some jutsu so that it would not come off.
"Uchiha, what's this for?" Kisame asked curiously as he let Tsumi go.
"Let me see..." Pulling out a pocket mirror, Tsumi had a look at her new collar. It was of black leather, red décor and metal spikes that stood out. A small, silver tag with the word "owned" hung loosely on a chain around a punched in hole. "Mmm…not bad…"
"How many did you have to slaughter for that?"
"Only about five stores of morons."
"Wow, I thought you'd have to go through more to find something as beautiful as this," she said as she inspected it once more.
"At least you like it; that's all that matters." Pushing her backwards against the tree once more – yes, it's the same tree the whole time – Itachi began…you get the picture.
"Watching you lovebirds is sickening," Kisame grumbled as he set up his own equipment for the night's stay. "Just don't go fucking each other while I'm around, got it?"
"Fucking each other? I haven't gotten to that…yet," the Uchiha replied, trying very hard to be sarcastic.
"Oh please," Tsumi rolled her eyes as she pushed Itachi away and picked up her bathing stuff. "I'm going off now, and I expect no peeping toms," she said slowly and audibly to the men, then turned around and walked off towards the hot spring nearby.
"Tell me that you aren't going to spy on her? Please?" Kisame pleaded mockingly.
"I'm not going. I have my kunai to sharpen," Itachi replied shortly and went to work.
"I'll just…lie here," Kisame sighed, talking obviously to himself.
When Tsumi got back a short while later, Itachi went for his own bath.
"You know, Itachi does talk a lot about you," Kisame said suddenly after Itachi was gone.
"Eh? What does he say?"
"You don't want to know."
"Then why'd you bring it up? Baka."
"I brought it up to tell you that he talks a lot about you, but not to tell you what he said."
"Whatever."
Climbing into her 'bed', Tsumi lay down and pulled up some thin sheets. Closing her eyes, she dreamed wonderful dreams of seeing Sasuke again.
The next morning…
"Hayashibara. Get up." Kisame kicked Tsumi's sleeping form in her lower back, causing pain to spread throughout her nervous system.
"Fuck you, Hoshigaki!" Sitting up and stretching herself, Tsumi stood up and walked off to the hot spring for a quick wash of her face and teeth.
"You really didn't have to kick her, you know."
"Then how do you wake her up?"
"That is none of your business."
There was a long pause before Tsumi got back, changed and ready to go. "So how do you want me to look for my disguise? I can gather up some information too, you know."
"How you should look, eh? Hot. Sexy. Seducing," Kisame started to name off.
"Now why would you be answering that question? I was asking Itachi-kun."
"What Kisame said," the Uchiha replied quickly.
"Fine. One sec." Closing her hands together and performing several seals, Tsumi turned into a girl that looked…more or less like herself.
"You didn't do a very good job of that, Hayashibara," Kisame pointed out.
"What do you mean?"
"I see no changes."
"Neither do I. Then again, she's already hot, sexy and seducing," Itachi joked as Tsumi walked over and slapped him.
"Haha," she said dryly.
"Now I'll have to get used to this face for the next few days," Itachi mumbled. "I liked your normal face better!" he whined stupidly.
"Too bad for you. Learn to bear with it."
…and so, our three little Akatsuki characters wandered off on their mission that consisted of trying to capture the Kyuubi.
TBC