Chapter 26 The Protector
"I'll protect everybody. I won't let anybody die"
Uzumaki Naruto
Hinata, Kiba and Shino were running, following Kurenai after a successful mission at the south of Fire country. Kurenai had the greatest smile ever clinging on her lips. It was the first time her team had an A-mission, which involved the murder of many enemies. It had been carried perfectly: All the targets had been eliminated. Accidental witnesses had also been disposed. Acid had been thrown onto the corpses to make it their identification more difficult. Some throwaway scapegoats had been found. After all the mess they have done she was left with one wish: To have a really hot bubble bath at the Leaf. Yes, HOT bubbles. She always enjoyed boiling bubble bath. A lot of hot bubbles, running down her body...
Hinata was feeling quite satisfied too. She had killed five people by sneaking from behind and then slitting her throats. None of them had noticed anything until they felt the blood leaving unannounced their bodies. She was well in the way of becoming a true shinobi. Hopefully Naruto would be happy for her.
She was running behind both Kiba and Shino when she suddenly saw briefly as she passed Naruto mouthing her name with a cute smile and waving his hand merrily
"Na-Na-Naruto-kun?" She asked as she stopped and looked back.
Naruto was nowhere to be seen. She blushed. She couldn't believe she was daydreaming of Naruto. She was not a kid anymore. She hoped Naruto would return soon. She was all right with friend-to-friend business until she managed to get rid of stammering. Naruto and she could become...
Hinata didn't know why, but she suddenly shivered.
«It's getting cold» she thought.
«Danger! »
Sakura woke up. She had been sweating. Her clothes were soggy from her sweats. She looked around to find out where she was. It was certainly nowhere in the forest. The sterile white told her that she was in a hospital. She looked at her bandaged leg. Wrong. She was looking at the place where her leg used to be. For a few seconds, she felt confusion and pain... Quickly her shinobi training took over. She was feeling danger near. She had to get ready.
She started to move, but her movements were slow and barely coordinated. Damn! She was still dizzy from the painkillers. If anybody attacked her she was DEAD-MEAT!
First she smashed the chair against the wall. Next she used her teeth to tear the blankets, wetting them with the water of the washbasin to increase their resistance. With a pair of legs of the chair and the wet strips of blankets she managed an improvised leg.
She looked around the room for any kind of weapons. Why was she in a room without any windows? Then the coat hanger came in to her view. She picked it up as makeshift weapon.
Then the door opened.
There was a person looking at her with disinterested eyes. A person that looked too much alike with her beloved husband.
"Itachi!" Sakura yelled. Then she understood. Her chest started to hurt. If Itachi was there, Naruto had been captured. Sasuke would never let his best friend to be captured. That meant he was... Sasuke was...
"Where are Sasuke and Naruto?" She yelled.
"Their fate should not interest you. You should concern with yourself since you are going to die." Itachi explained expressionlessly.
"Bullshit!" yelled Sakura. Itachi was going to try to kill her for being a witness, but she was not going to die. She was going to bring him down. She was going to avenge Sasuke. She started making seals. "KATON!" She called out and a concentrated firestorm that exploded in the close quarter and pointblank against Itachi.
"Surprising. I didn't expect anyone so young to control Katon so well except anyone from the Uchiha clan." commented Itachi, stopping the fire with only one hand. He moved his other hand in the fire to catch the burnt chair splinters she had tried to use as hidden projectiles.
"Damn you!" She started to run away concentrating her chakra in her left hand. Uchiha sighed. It was too easy. She obviously wanted to break the wall and escape. He grabbed one kunai and was getting ready to throw it to her back.
However she surprised him as she jumped to wall, then to the roof, and lastly she propelled herself straight to Itachi. She was using the chakra in her left hand to try to hit his neck, a vital point.
Itachi sighed. He easily stopped her punch with his hand, canceling her gathered chakra with his own. Then he crushed her left hand.
"AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGHHH!" She screamed.
"Too slow" he objectively commented getting ready for the final strike.
She pulled back twitching at the pain of broken bones and adopted a defense position with the coat hanger. He looked curiously at her. Was she ready expecting to survive against him with a coat hanger?
Then he noticed something in her ring finger. He moved swift, blocked her attack, and broke her right wrist in purpose to take a good look at her right hand. He used his kunai to cut off her ring finger. She screamed again as she backed away trying to stem the flow of her blood.
"This is my mother's ring. So you are the one my brother chose to marry. Interesting. I was going to kill you because I was concerned that Sasuke chose to take care of you instead of continuing the fight. Now I have a better reason to kill you. It's a sure way of making Sasuke suffer." He said in a monotonous tone. Sakura immediately felt a heavy burden in her heart disappearing. Sasuke was alive! Even if she were going to die, at least Sasuke was alive.
"Why?" asked Sakura looking at him. Now she could understand why Sasuke hated Itachi so much. There was something unnerving in the way Itachi never showed any emotions as he spoke. "Why do you want to put Sasuke in so much pain?"
"Sasuke won't be able to kill me as long as his hate is not strong enough. You are interfering with his development into a perfect shinobi. I want his hate to grow. I want it to grow enough to kill his best friend and abandon his wife without a second thought. That's the reason you must die. I must harden his heart" Itachi explained.
"What do you know about the heart? You don't have a heart!"
"I do, and it beats too. But only at the pace I decide. It doesn't have the right to decide." said Itachi. His words were conversational and his face unreadable.
Sakura gritted her teeth in anger. She knew that she was trapped, and at Itachi's mercy. What was worse, she knew full well that Itachi had no mercy. However, she would be damned if she was to roll up and die.
"You are like Orochimaru, or even the Hokage. You only care about Sasuke's abilities in fighting or his Sharingan. Well, you can all rot in hell! My name is Uchiha Sakura, and I'm going to fight!" Sakura lunged again at Itachi, who simply punched her so fast she didn't even have time to blink.
She fell against the opposite wall. She felt the taste of blood in her mouth. A terrible pain in her ribcage told her she had at least one rib broken, almost certainly more. She thought that was it for her... but Itachi didn't finish her off. She raised her head. Itachi was looking at her with a curious expression.
"Uchiha... Sakura?" Itachi smiled. A smile devoid of feelings "Well, well, well. That's interesting. Is that the reason Sasuke chose to marry you? Because of your name? Is he trying to send me a message?"
"Do you think every single thing Sasuke does is for you? You self-centered bastard! What's wrong with my name!" asked Sakura.
"So, he didn't tell you" said Itachi to himself. "He didn't tell you about how the Uchiha clan was created. About the old and boring story of two brothers who had a useless feud between them and about the woman who got caught in the middle. The woman was called Sakura. Of course she died."
"Sasuke didn't marry me because of my name!" assured Sakura.
"Is that so? Then maybe it's just fate that is playing a joke on us." Commented Itachi "The Uchiha clan sinned when it was created through the conflict between kin, and it will end with the same sin through a conflict between kin. It will end with a fight between another avenger and another protector."
«Protector? » mentally Sakura asked herself. Who was he protecting? How dare he call himself the protector? Was Sasuke the protector and Itachi the avenger?
"I am sorry" said Sakura with a tired smile "I don't understand what you are talking about and I don't believe in fate. I always believed that fate is a convenient excuse people use to justify their actions. You don't have any excuse for what you did.
"I have no special reason to tell you why I killed my clan. However since you are my sister-in-law I guess I could tell you about what one Hyuga historian with a warped sense of humor called the Uchiha Tragedy." Itachi paused "It all started a few hundred of years ago. The Hyuga clan was as it is now, the most powerful clan of the region. Fire Country didn't..."
"SHUT UP! Do you think I care about something that happened hundred of years ago? You are crazy! I don't care about the past!"
Itachi looked at her. It had been a long time since anybody had dared to interrupt him like that. He smiled. This girl was interesting. Her eyes... they held the same hate as Sasuke.
Sakura charged again at him. Itachi counterattacked again too fast for her to prevent it. He concentrated enough chakra at his hand and then lashed at her. With a lighting move he ripped off her right eyeball off her face.
Sakura was pushed back. She felt her legs wavering. She had to use all her willpower not to fall. Yet, she didn't cry. She had to bite her lower lip to bear her pain. She was NOT going to cry in front of this fiend.
Her left eye still glared at Itachi with murderous hate.
"From now on, every time Sasuke looks at you he will remember his failure at protecting you and his own weakness. His hate will grow and it will make him stronger." said Itachi putting the eyeball in his pocket.
"Why?" She repeated weakly, before staring Itachi's Mangekyou Sharingan eyes, entering the illusion of the genjutsu Tsukuyomi. She screamed as the world changed around her.
"Within the realm of Tsukuyomi space and time are under my control. For the next hours you will experience why Sasuke hates me."
And she did experience it. She was watching a baby, which he instinctively knew was Sasuke, through another person's eyes. That person looked for a moment at a mirror. He was a younger version of Itachi. She knew she was watching his memories. She couldn't do anything as Itachi played with the baby.
She watched different memories for hours. The only common link of all the memories was that Sasuke was always in them. A young Sasuke that really loved his brother.
Sometimes it was more than love. It was infatuation. The younger brother was always following the older one. Itachi was always very kind. He didn't mind having Sasuke around and he always taught the younger one tricks and skills. It was Itachi who taught Sasuke how to whistle, how to paint, how to saw and even how to cook omelets without burning the whole house. At the fifth try the omelets were even edible.
Then... the massacre. She saw as Itachi killed all the members of the Uchiha clan, every one of them. Those that tried to fight and those that didn't. It wasn't a fight, as Itachi was on a whole different level. It was just a bloodbath. He killed them without pity. He killed them without mercy.
An unsuspecting Sasuke came along a little time later. Itachi tortured him mentally, showing him the destruction he had caused. Sakura could almost feel the pain Sasuke was experiencing.
Sakura limp body finally fell to the ground, making a strong sound as her head bumped with the floor.
"Please" Itachi said to her comatose body "If you ever try to kill your son, do a good job. I hate inefficiency. The Leaf Village was inefficient too. They tried to make me into a perfect killing tool, and they almost succeeded. However they failed. If they hadn't..."
Itachi paused and sighed. Dwelling about past actions was also very unproductive. He left the room taking a last good look at the girl, Uchiha Sakura
He started looking for Kisame, another inefficient person. He had clearly told him to take care of the escape route; however he was losing his time killing useless humans.
Following the chakra he was emitting, he entered the maternity room. That was the problem with Kisame, Itachi considered. He was not only weak of body but also weak of spirit. Kisame had felt fear of Sasuke. Those weak of spirit only knew how to fight fear causing pain to weaker forms of life, like the three nurses and four parents that had tried to stop Kisame's rage. Obviously they were dead, like most of the babies in the room.
"Kisame, let's go." He ordered. "There has been enough bloodshed for today."
Kisame had a mad grimace and didn't hear it for a few seconds. Then he started to laugh.
"Just give me a few seconds."
"Kisame" Itachi just said without any trace of anger. Kisame very quickly decided to stop.
"Did you kill the girl?"
"Killing her would be useless. If I kill her now, there wouldn't be enough pain. I'll give Sasuke a slight hope, which I'll take it away from him later. When I kill that girl, it will be in front of my weak brother. It will make him realize just how weak he is. It will increase his hate and his desire to kill me tenfold." Itachi explained. He stopped his calm walking, and the he started to laugh in his characterized slow, menacing laugh.
"What's so funny?" asked Kisame, although he didn't really want to know.
Itachi looked at Kisame and smiled.
"I just though it would provide endless amusement for me if the next Uchiha heir that girl was to carry was actually mine" Itachi explained.
Immediately Kisame felt sick. He had killed a lot of people and he didn't care enough to even count them. If the authorities were to catch him, he would be executed immediately, he knew that. However he didn't consider himself particularly "evil".
Itachi was a true devil, the kind that his mother used to tell him when he was a little boy to scare him and make him shut the fuck up.
"I was just joking" said Itachi humorlessly as he walked off. Kisame followed, thinking that Itachi usually never made jokes.
"How is Sakura doing?" asked Naruto.
"She is fine. She is still worried about her chuunin exam." said Sasuke.
"Don't forget that if she is unhappy, you will pay." Naruto said trying to sound serious... and failing miserably. One lifetime ago they had fight trying to hurt each other.
"Is that a threat, you idiot?" Sasuke smirked.
Naruto returned the same expression, lightly punching Sasuke's shoulder.
"It's a promise, jerk..."
Sasuke woke up with a terrified scream. At first he thought he was crying but no, it was the rain. He looked around, still looking for Itachi. He didn't feel anybody close. He immediately found the trail of Kisame's steps. He apparently had been wounded; He was carrying his sword in a way that left some heavy tracks very easy to follow if he hurried up.
Sasuke didn't move. He was staring at a spot where a body was lying, headless. The head was two meters away from the body.
"Naruto" he whispered. He hugged the body of his best friend. He wanted to cry, but he couldn't. To cry was useless. Naruto was dead and it was his fault. It was his fault. He should have died that night where he was seven. He should have left the Leaf when he had the chance. Itachi should have killed him in the last fight. Why was he still alive? WHY WAS HE STILL ALIVE!
He should have known better than to let Naruto and Sakura get close. That sadistic bitch called destiny had been plotting against him since birth, taking away all his precious people and leaving him to live a dark life alone until the day he was pathetically killed by his own brother. Sasuke could bet that if he were to meet destiny face-to-face, it would laugh at him.
He looked up to the black sky as the rain washed away Itachi's trail. He knew he had to follow him, but he was just so tired, so tired...
It was only one hour later that he gathered enough strength to act as a true shinobi.
He disposed of Naruto's body exactly as he had been taught: Without a trace. He had faithfully studied how a shinobi's body had within it secrets of the village's ninjutsu, information on different chakra types, herbs and other things that would reveal secrets about the village. Disposing the body was essential to protect the village.
That was exactly what he did: He chopped his best to pieces, doing his duty as a true shinobi.
He actually tried to cry, but he just couldn't. He just couldn't shed a single tear. After he completely burned the pieces and scattered the ashes to the wind, he wondered if he was still a human being.
His brother would be proud.
Sakura woke up. She looked around confused as her eye left came into focus. She tried to raise her head and felt a pain sear through her stomach. She scanned the room from her position. The Hokage was looking at her with a tired smile. She could almost feel Kakashi's smile besides his mask. She could also see Sasuke's back as he stared at the window. Naruto was nowhere to be seen.
"Are you all right?" asked Kakashi.
"Fine. How long have I been out?" She asked.
"One week. Sasuke took you all the way here and I wasn't in the village when you came." explained the Hokage. Sakura flashed a smile at Sasuke's direction. However Sasuke was still as a corpse still looking away.
"Where is Naruto?" Sakura asked.
There was a deafening silence as Kakashi and Tsunade glanced at each other and then back at her.
"What happened to Naruto!" repeated Sakura in an innocent tone.
"He's dead" uttered simply Sasuke still looking away. He was afraid of facing Sakura "Itachi eliminated him.
Sakura felt like a thousand or maybe a million kunais and shurikens stabbing every part of her body as Sasuke's words sank.
"No... Why?" She asked herself, her voice barely above a whisper.
"Because that's life" Sasuke said. He turned and looked at her. He looked at her ring finger. The doctors at least had been able to attach it back, but the scar would always be there. The bandages were covering her right eye. Her left hand and right wrist also had casts. The covers of the bed were preventing him from watching her chest or the stump that was her right leg now. "Welcome to the cruel world." He added and left the room with the shoulders shagged. Watching her was his punishment for his weakness.
Kakashi followed.
"Sasuke" he called in the corridor of the hospital.
Sasuke kept walking for a few seconds. He stopped.
"Aa?" Sasuke asked. He was thinking it was very futile to talk now. He didn't feel like talking. There was no point on saying anything anymore.
"You should have some sleep. You must be too tired. You have been up at her side since you brought her here. Even when the nurses tried to take you away you refused to move.
Sasuke just smirked and turned around intending to leave.
"Have you actually slept at all since Naruto died?" Kakashi asked.
"I didn't have time for sleeping. I was thinking." He sighed and turned around. There was a pleading look in Sasuke's tired eyes. "He beat all of us, sensei. He beat all of us... and didn't even break a sweat doing it." He started to laugh. "We worked so hard, Kakashi-sensei. So hard... and we were useless. We couldn't do anything! We were so... so..." Sasuke clutched his had in to a fist and smacked it against the wall, making cracks on it. "Weak."
Kakashi didn't know it, but the contempt in his voice was exactly the same that was on Itachi's voice when he had said that same word to the younger sibling.
"It isn't your fault. I read the preliminary report you made while at the hospital..."
"Wasn't it Sensei?" He violently stepped into the restroom. "Look at me. Look at me! Naruto is dead! Sakura is... is...!" He couldn't continue. Kakashi could see he was trying to control himself, as he had always done. "And... I don't even have a scar!" Sasuke concluded as he smashed his fist against the mirror, which shattered into a thousand little diamonds that played the saddest tune upon crashing to the tiled floor. His hand was bleeding profusely as he wrapped it into a towel that began to turn in deep crimson.
"Stop it." Kakashi pleaded calmly. Sasuke wondered what Kakashi was referring to. Stopping his revenge? Stopping his feelings of guilt? Stopping his desire to smash his face against the wall till one of them broke? Stopping his wish of burning his right hand at that very moment so at least he had a physical reminder in his body of his own weakness?
"I can't." Then a slight smile "I don't give up. That's my ninja way." Explained Sasuke remembering Naruto's usual words. He passed Kakashi without looking back. He was tired, his heart was heavy, but the steps he took were unyieldingly walking to his next destination.
Kakashi watched him leaving. He wished he could say something to him, but there was nothing he could say to reach Sasuke. His student needed someone he could emotionally cling to, but everyone like that was either dead or crippled. Itachi had done a good job.
Sasuke walked straight to the ANBU headquarters, where he wrote an application for joining.
I am sorry, this chapter took a long time to came out. Well, I think it's a nice quality chapter, so it's all right, isn't it?.
Last chapter brought a lot of discussion about if Itachi was or not too strong. There was somebody that said that didn't like god-like characters. Others said that there was no way Naruto could be killed by Itachi.
Well, let's take one look at the original source, the manga (yeah, that one that doesn't show a single hint of Shikamaru-Ino, or Kakashi-Iruka. Oh, well) The Third killed by himself 50 enemy shinobis. Probably jouninssince they were fighting a battle and had survived so far.He wasn't even hurt. One of Akatsuki's members almost destroyed the whole Sand Village. Itachi exterminated the Uchiha clan, the strongest of the Leaf by himself when he was just 12. When Sasuke found him, Itachi wasn't even hurt. So, according to the original source, the manga, there are amazingly strong characters.
The point is: Itachi exterminated the strongest clan of the Leaf, one clan that took care of the protection of the Leaf Village when he was 12. When he was 17 he beat Kakashi with insulting ease. The chapter in question happens three years later. Itachi would be 20. No matter how strong Naruto and Sasuke are, I don't think they are strong enough to beat Itachi yet. True, Naruto and Sasuke have been training. However, it doesn't mean Itachi hasn't been training too. Also, I don't know if the Rasengan can be learnt by the Sharingan. However in my chapter Naruto used it constantly for hours against Itachi. The dumbest shinobi would be able to pick up one clue or two. Itachi is a genius.
Well, nothing like a friendly discussion to keep up the pace. What do you think of this chapter?