HERE I AM!

Did you miss me? ' Ok, I guess not, but… What did I tell you? Your reviews made a miracle and I finished chapter 3! YAY!

Now I just miss the epilogue – I guess I'll update in 10 days or so.

But I'm thinking to write a sequel, too….Would you like it? Let me know!

THANKS A LOT! I RECEIVED 21 REVIEWS AND OVER 450 HITS! YAY! LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH, KEEP IT UP!

bows

Still dedicated to my special Kai.

CHAPTER TWO: Revealed Secrets.

A/N: I had to make up a "secret" past for Tenten!

The pale moon just kept on throwing her eerie beams on the forest, some rare, dark clouds passing by from time to time. That flashing, inconstant light reflected on Uchiha Itachi's forehead-protector, making that deep, regular slash look like bleeding.

Tenten's skin was now pale and sweated, those small little droplets sinisterly sparkling in that obscure atmosphere. A strange halo of white flashed around her head and on her silky hair as she slowly lowered her gaze.

"I actually know about you more things than you'll ever imagine." He had said, leaning towards her.

And Tenten just felt violated.

A stranger, a criminal, a dirty traitor whose hands had been stained with the blood of hundreds of people, actually knew her name and was able to read her thoughts and predict her mind.

It was scary.

Scary and spellbinding, as a beautiful, fascinating storm. You want to touch it, to feel if that crushing and pouring rain is falling for real, or it's just your sick imagination.

But you know you can't. Or you'll get wet.

Then, as the flashing image of a thunder breaking the perfection of a blue, nightly sky slowly made its way through her weakening mind – making her gasp and shift uncomfortably, he spoke again.

"Let me see…" he said "and correct me if my memory fails" the hand that was still holding her wrist tightened the grip "Tenten…now you should be one year older than my brother, right? You should be 20, am I right?"

Her eyes were just harmlessly staring at his moving lips, that harmonic, regular movement catching her whole attention. She didn't want to, but she just nodded.

"Very well, then…Your parents, Eiko and Izumi, were both ninjas from the Hidden Leaf and both were pretty feared and skilled ANBU members. They really were very cautious not to make their identity completely known, so they decided to hide their surname and not to give you one, either. Am I correct?"

Tenten's gaze widened even more.

How? How was it possible?

For so many years her life, she struggled not to make anyone know about the true identity of her family – except for the Hokage and the ANBU corps.

And the same did her parents.

They didn't want the enemies to get their revenge on her and…

On him.

Her lips just parted in a helpless motion, no words coming to aid her to express all her astonishment.

Itachi smirked "Until they got married and they had him…" he paused, attentively studying her worried reactions "You know what I mean, don't you? Your brother, Arashi. At the time your mother decided to quit her work to look after him…Right? Then, four years later, they had you.

They were so happy, they had two beautiful children to raise up as two good, attentive soldiers of the Hidden Leaf. But your brother never wanted to be a Shinobi and just left the village when you were about 7, right? He got protected by your parents not to get captured and killed as a traitor. But, in return of this huge favour the Hokage obliged them to quit being ANBU members…Did I miss something, Tenten-san?" he added, spelling and hissing her name into her ear.

She was now trembling. Her body was shook by a rapid series of intense vibrations, her bosom excitedly going up and down as her breath suddenly became huffed and fatigued.

It was impossible.

No way! No way in hell he could actually know it for real!

She never told anyone about her older brother! Not even to Gai-sensei or to her best-friend, Neji. Not even to Hinata or Sakura, or her other confidants. That secret had always been locked in the depths of her heart and among the few members of her family.

'I-it's impossible…' she managed to think 'he is just guessing, Tenten. It's just luck…don't worry, he MUST be guessing, right?'

A hoarse, rough laugh filled the air as Itachi's finger brushed against her nose and then travelled down her lips, lingering for a long moment about that softness. His bloody, wicked eyes were directly staring into her brown, widened ones.

He smiled, mischievously tilting his head to the side and biting his own lower lip, as he sighed deeply, arranging a handful of brown lock backwards to have better access to her ear "I'm not just guessing, Tenten" he said, his tone dangerously low and evil "I know it for real"

As his hot, warming breath cuddled her soft skin, every single resolution about him being a normal man, got crushed as frail, plain glass.

Tenten shivered, just a childlike wail escaping through her parted lips, blended with the irregular sound of her huffed breath.

' Trembling and panting. Good job, Tenten! You surely are a perfect kunoichi by every meaning...' a mocking voice whispered in the back of her mind.

But, given the circumstances, her rational self certainly now was at a terrible loss.

A spiralling knot of doubts was racing into her emptied head.

How? When? Where? Why?

She couldn't possibly know.

Now, all she really was aware of, was the unreality of the situation she had been caught in and the vague tremor that was still troubling her limbs.

She would have like to ask, to inquire, to vanquish all the insecurities about that man, but, somehow she couldn't.

Tenten, 20-years-old kunoichi, experienced and rational ANBU member, absolute queen of "weapons' use" had actually been psychologically defeated by a man she had never seen before.

No matter he was Uchiha Itachi – or, better still, the fearsome, bloody, magnificent Uchiha-Itachi-of-the-legends. She had never given a damn about him and all the rumours about his behaviour and actions, since she had never feared something – or someone – until she experienced it.

It reminded her a lot of when she was young and just graduated from the Academy.

At that time, she had been chosen to be Hyuuga Neji's mate, and, for the first time in her entire life, she found out how awesomely powerful his bloodline was. He was always so gracious, every single movement of his body directed to accomplish the perfection of his touch-less attacks.

She had been astonished, scared, spellbound.

But, as time slowly passed by, she came to learn how to deal with such "magnificence", how to muffle every single gasp every time his incredible sight caught something she could never spot.

And now, she almost felt the same, her fragile ego secretly captured and hypnotized by Itachi's hugeness. She could feel it clearly, seeping through every cell of his being.

But, the point was she didn't have time to get acquainted with it, now.

So, all she really could do, was staring at him, eyes widened in shock as her lungs desperately gasped for air and her hands trembled.

Itachi's hand loosened the grip around her wrist and leisurely travelled up her body, pausing about her neck. With a smirk he removed her mask, soundlessly tossing it on the ground.

Tenten powerlessly stared at the white object landing somewhere in the darkness.

'As a dying, white, dove…'

She couldn't help but thinking that, now that her last shield, the sign of her acquired strength was definitely gone, she felt completely bare to his merciless touch.