Guardian
There is rage in the heart of every guardian.
It is a cold rage, dormant but encompassing, buried until the last desperation drives it out.
It is a rage that destroys everything in its way.
It is a terrible, all-consuming dragon-fire...
She waited for him in the gardens; it was night, so late it was early, and breathed in the scents of the flowers. She didn't hear him, or sense him, merely guessed from the stillness that he was here.
"You know why I am here."
"Yes. I do," she replied quietly, eyes like sapphires as the glimmered in the shadows.
"There must be an accord."
"... of course."
Black eyes held her, mesmerizing and drawing her into their depths, unaware her own eyes were doing the same to his.
"You will protect Naruto from all possible harm. You will not harm him physically, emotionally, spiritually, or emotionally, and do nothing that will harm him in the future."
Hercalm, quiet voice was like discussing the weather: polite but flat.
"You don't leave room for any loophole, do you?" he chuckled,the sound dark like chocolate, rich and heady.
She smirked at him, and bowed slightly to let him know she took it as a joke.
Well, partly.
"And what do I get in return for such protection?" he asked, voice quietly probing and eyes suddenly very, very keen.
"You get me," she replied simply, spreading her arms slightly.
Eyes narrowed slightly at that.
"You will be a 'tool', something for me to use in any way I wish?" he asked cautiously.
"For Naruto's sake, I would become the devil himself if I had to. Yes. I will do anything you ask of me."
Itachi was silent for a long moment, coming to sit beside her in the dark.
"This is an... interesting... proposition. I do not deny that I am tempted..."
Eyes like knives regarded the girl sitting beside him.
"What can I do to convince you?" she whispered.
He thought for a moment.
"Speak nothing of our agreement to anyone, and seal it in blood."
"Agreed."
He pulled out a kunai, cut both their hands and pressed the wounds together so that their blood mingled and fell onto the grass.
"Now you're an Uchiha," he smiled down at her.
"Now I am yours," she corrected him.
The two lingered, silently, for awhile before heading off to their own rooms.
The first time she was out in public, a week later, she was buying groceries for her and Naruto. They shared a guest room in the massive Uchiha complex, under the close Sharingan eye of Fujita and the even closer eye of Itachi, but she felt more rested than she ever had in her life.
There was an uneasiness, something hidden at the heart of the clan, but so long as it took her in she didn't care and had no intention of finding out.
Only after things were said and done, did she realize that it had found her out instead.
If she had dug a little deeper, seen things sooner, would things have still turned out the way they did?
Still, that was a question that she wasn't even aware of yet—would never even "nightmare", so that is for much later.
She was frightened, walking the streets blatantly as she did, in the sunlight, rather than scurrying in the shadows. She felt like a rat that had suddenly been told it was a pet bird—caged, but protected all the same—and was uncertain of her place now.
"Oi! You! Demon-lover! Get outta here, we don't serve your kind!" a shop-owner sneered, throwing an apple at her that she wasn't fast enough to dodge, her leg still aching a bit.
Grimacing as she bent down to pick up the apple, she froze as a kunai cut through it. She rose slowly, Itachi helping her stand, his eyes frozen pools of black rage.
"The girl and the boy are mine. They are under my protection, the protection of the Uchiha Clan," he remembered to add, "and if you hurt them, I will kill you."
His voice had dropped but was clear enough that everyone heard him, their faces becoming like the white sheets to cover corpses' faces, and all movement ceased.
"W-why!" someone in the marketplace choked out.
He smirked, an arm casually resting on the hilt of the katana strapped onto the back of his ANBU uniform, and again all stunted movement in the crowd ceased.
"She's mine."
As if that was answer enough, and it probably was, the crowd split before the two and she wasn't bothered again.
"Thank you," she murmured, hands still shaky after the incident, body tense and humming with adrenaline.
He gave her a smile that tried to be kind but ended up being merely poisoned.
"I'm upholding my end of our Faustian pledge," he smirked, to all other eyes friendly and open.
He was reminding her, in his own subtle way, of her own end of the deal.
"Tell me what you wish for me to do, and I will do it," she shrugged.
She meant it, too; for Naruto's sake, she would do anything—even if it meant losing her own soul in the process.
Such was the depth of her love.
"I wish for you to accompany me to the Meeting tonight, and take notes. Take them in whatever way you do, and then copy them down for me to—study—over later."
Seeing as it was such an innocent, secretarial task it immediately had her on the defensive, assuming the worst while struggling to believe the best.
Their pact was sealed in blood—there was no escaping that.
If he did, his own bloodline—his own Sharingan—would rebel against him.
"I will do as you require of me," she replied quietly.
Their eyes met, neither backing down, and he smiled again, this time a truly happy one that chilled her to the bone.
She had a very bad feeling about tonight.
It was all boring, really—she was sitting behind Itachi, like a servant to her master, dutifully scribbling notes in her own abbreviated form that was illegible to anyone else who tried to read it (which came in handy quite a few times) and well-nigh forgotten.
"... and that concludes tonight's Meeting, with the exception of the brash action of our beloved Head taking in the jinchuuriki and his guardian."
The room fell into a sort of anticipating hush, and all eyes turned to Fujita though all senses were attuned to Itachi.
The Uchiha Clan, it seemed, was taking no chances.
"... my clansmen, you understand the prestige that we have gained. The Kyuubi, under our direct influence and control! We have braved what no one else in the village dared to do!"
"Probably for very good reason!" a man snorted.
Fujita, studiously ignoring him, continued on.
"We have a duty, not only to see our clan rise in the ranks to all of the power and glory it so richly deserves, but also to the civilians of this village, and this girl is an orphan abandoned by the very people who should have taken her in. She has taken on a huge burden, and done... admirably... but it is time that she steps down and we take over that role."
At those words, Kaida bristled, the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end.
Her gut was telling her that things were going very, very wrong.
"But none of us have any time to take a boy-child in who's not one of us!" another man argued, all too willing to point out that he had four children of his own to provide for.
As if that was the cue they had all been waiting for, arguments swept through the members of the arguably most powerful clan in Konoha with frightening speed and vehemence.
"... excuse me."
Itachi shot her an unreadable look, but raised no hand to indicate for her to stop.
All the voices ceased that the audacity of the girl to actually address them.
"In coming to your glorious clan for protection, I did not mean to give up my duty as Naruto's guardian. I still remain in that role, and will forever. I did not intend for any other to take over this task, nor will I ever lay it aside. All I ask is for protection from the unthinking masses, and I will try to be as little of a burden as possible," she stated softly, voice smooth like silk.
Itachi mentally applauded her; it was just enough firmness, masked in a deft touch, that the members would not stand before her—or against her.
"Well! It seems that our initial role is somewhat smaller than we were led to believe," a man all but accused Fujita of lying to them.
"It seems," he smiled mildly at her, irritated for having his plans sidetracked and relieved that they were already accepting his decision, "that I have been overruled."
She bowed, deep and respectful, and again melded back into the shadows to be forgotten.
No one ever mentioned taking guardianship away from her again.
Later, she would wonder why Itachi had sent her before the Meeting was over. It never occurred to her that if she had seen what happened after the official business that she would have been terrified. She merely assumed that it was sensitive shinobi affairs and tried to forget it. But it lingered, in the back of her mind like a scent of death, and she found herself holding Naruto tightly to herself that night as she vainly struggled to sleep.
----owari----