HEYAZ!

Never mind, I'm quite happy. So, a lil' news about this work:

34, wonderful reviews.

Over 850 hits.

The Epilogue is almost done (hopefully) and a sequel (if you'll tell me the story is worth enough) half in my mind.

Now, this is my LONGEST chapter ever in English. I hope you're going to like it. Maybe you'll have to wait a bit more for my next update, the Epilogue, since I'm not very happy of the result and stuff.

Dedications:

To "Mornings Light" for her review was my longest ever and she told me wonderful things!

To "Tenshi no Jigaku" for she sent me two replies in one day and liked my version of Tenten's past.

To "scorpion05", for she noticed the "Sexual tension". ;P

Now, I want to say a bit more about my only anonymous reviewer, "Star". Really, I LOVED his/her reviews and, since I reply to almost all my reviewers, as much as I can, I'm SORRY for I can't reply to his/hers! So, I just want to say a big: THANK YOU! To "Star"…and I'm not so mean in the end, am I? Just kidding! ;P

Sorry if I've been so … talkative!

Now, just….ENJOY!

Yumi

CHAPTER THREE: Shattered

She couldn't believe it.

No, it was impossible.

Tenten raised her head to look at him, but her brown, small eyes just provided her the blurry image of something black and red.

Why? Why was she crying?

She never cried. Never since Hyuuga Neji had been hospitalized after Uchiha Sasuke's betrayal.

But now she was doing it.

She actually was committing the worse crime a kunoichi could ever commit: indulging in her emotions.

The man smiled, his callused hands caressing her wet cheeks and wiping her tears.

"Oh my, my…why are you crying?" he asked, leaning towards her "Am I that bad even for an ANBU, Tenten?"

She just gasped, her small bosom shaken by a faint sob.

No words or thoughts or motions came to her mind.

She just felt…

Empty.

As empty as she had never been.

Her widened, watery orbs just kept on vaguely staring at him, her mind numbed and confused as a misty landscape. She felt intoxicated, sick, spellbound. No beams of sanity or reason managed to break through her hazy senses, throwing her in a complete darkness, far more obscure and scary than the nightly forest she was sinking in, far more cold and hard than the trunk she was pinned against.

Far more velvety and intoxicating than the sensation of his silky hair faintly brushing against her face. She almost jumped, her heart furiously racing.

It was wrong. So damn wrong she felt ashamed of herself.

But, the more she felt it was sinful and immoral, the more she wanted to feel it.

She didn't know why, but she felt like, during her entire life, she had experienced just one side of the things.

She had always saw the sun, the light, the white beams of peace and hope, and smart analysis.

It had been sun, when Hyuuga Neji kissed her, a few years before. It had been sun when they had made love in the Hyuuga mansion, until the dawn tapped at their window, reminding them of their duties. And it had been sun as well also when he told her they were not meant to be together.

But now…there was no sun. No flaring stars to enlighten her view or warm her heart up.

Now it was just cold. A sharp sensation of wintriness creeping under her skin and freezing her blood. It was like falling into an iced lake, going down and down and down: even if her eyes were directed to the tiny light of the surface, she knew she would have never reached the safeness.

She had been violated. Her every single secret had been crushed, and revealed and shattered, every single fragment wounding her as a spiky needle.

But needles usually don't aim so directly to your heart.

With that image vividly painted in her mind, Tenten shifted a bit.

No that she really thought it would have been somewhat useful, but she felt she should have fought him back, somehow. Or, at least, she should have tried.

But, as she saw him biting his lower lip and wickedly licking his teeth, her purpose simply vanished, leaving her alone once again.

Tenten shut her eyes, whimpering as he pressed himself against her.

'If I'm doomed to be shattered and teased, at least I don't want to witness it' her last hint of rationality suggested.

Silence had spread around that forest, as the second darkness of her closed lids was added to the obscurity of the surroundings, and a chilly breeze began to softly blow against her skin, cooling her neck. She took a deep breath.

It was soothing.

Her heartbeat still pounded in her whole being, but this hectic rhythm had now become familiar.

Basically, she had to clutch onto something, right? She let out a sigh, stretching against the wood.

But, as a clear sky often gets broken by a sudden thunder, Tenten's vague and frail quietness got shattered the moment her cooled skin registered the sensation of something hot and wet tracing the line of her neck. Her eyes immediately flew open, the icy breeze making her shiver.

Or, maybe it wasn't quite the breeze…

In fact, Itachi was now completely pressed against her – and he was actually kissing her neck.

Tenten wailed. Her breath became huffed, her bosom moving up and down frantically. Her hands automatically went up again, but they soon ended up in a senseless motion, collapsing again along her hips as they really weren't part of her body.

It was incredible.

Her mouth just hung opened and she stayed there, as if time and space had now twirled and melted with every flick of Itachi's tongue on her pale casing.

How could it be possible? How could her entire life completely depend on his ministrations?

She felt so powerless, so inadequate. She had always strongly believed one's ability depended on training, will and study. If you studied intensely, you could have been mathematically sure not be caught off guard in any possible situation.

Or, at least, that's what Tenten thought.

Why that logical principle wasn't now working? She had graduated at the Academy. She successfully passed the Chuunin selection when she was 14 and she became Jounin at the age of 16. And two years later she joined the ANBU corps. Her career was perfect. And yet, why weren't her beliefs right? Why did they betray and dump her in the moment she needed them the most?

She tried to shift away, her body trembling and her limbs moving heavily. But her attempt miserably failed, and Itachi's hand moved behind her head, sinking in her hair and stroking them as he pushed her towards him.

It was like being forcefully dragged to a point of no return. She was able to see the abyss and she knew it was slowly swallowing her in.

It was sudden, unexpected, unpredicted.

Her throat vibrated as she tried to force a cry out of her mouth. But just a small, white cloud escaped her lips and collided with the wintry air as a long, hurting moan reverberated in the forest.

A nightly bird chirped.

Then, all she really sensed, was Itachi's chuckle against her neck.

"You really are astounding…" he stated coldly, parting from her skin with a last, lustful kiss and cupping her face with one of his hands. "You've always been a quite interesting person to observe, Tenten, but lately you've been even more fascinating." He moved her head up, biting his lips as he took a glance of her slender features. She didn't move, even if her mind bid her to. "Mmmmmhhhh… such a cute face…You were a beautiful child, too but I must admit you grew up even better…" he paused, apparently concerned. "Other girls as Sakura, or Ino or the Hyuuga's heiress, Hinata-sama sometimes were probably cuter than you." He smirked. "But they lacked a really important thing you have…." He leant in closer, his breath heating her ear. " It's personality, Tenten…personality…" he hissed the last word letter by letter.

Tenten shut her eyes again trying to pull away from him and ending up struggling in his iron grip.

She faintly suppressed the urge to shiver "H-how did you know? I was only 9 when you betrayed our village" she managed to spit out.

He broke out in a hoarse laugh, his free hand arranging the rebellious locks about his forehead.

"Oh, my….such an unspoiled innocence! Yes, you're right, you just were 9. But do you really think I completely disappeared after that, washing my hands of the village? I know everything, about the village, Tenten. I know how many of you failed the Chuunin or Jounin selections, I know how many died and how and when, I know how many kunoichi there are and what are their assignments. You villagers are now like a beautiful game to play." He smiled wickedly. "I just observe and laugh at your utter stupidity. Just like I did comfortably sitting on the village's walls when you got attacked by the Sand…"

Tenten gasped, her eyes becoming red as the wintry wind dried away her tears.

"You…" she started, trembling "You…you knew and you did nothing…"

She tried to scowl, but she barely managed to look sorrowful and even more confused.

Itachi laughed again "I'm a criminal, Tenten. What do you expect of a criminal? I killed my own clan-members, not caring about them. How could I care about "the village"?" he sighed, shaking his head. "You always tend to think abstractly. "The village", "the clan", "the family"… but what does those words really mean? Nothing. You just deceive yourself, denying the truth and thinking that the ineptitude of a single man can be repaired by the "strength" of the group" he smiled, looking at her in the eyes "Single beings make the difference, Tenten." He licked his lips "Remember that"

She looked at him, his sharp but obvious words echoing in her void head.

Suddenly, memories of some pictures began to race into her mind, stealing a harsh gasp from her lips. She had never thought such pictures could have affected her like that: in the end, they were nothing but paper-printed images, right? But, as her fingers had lazily turned the pages of the "Uchiha Massacre Report" and those photographs had slipped on the floor, revealing images of hundreds of bloody corpses laying on the ground of the estate, her eyes immediately went wide, a rush of surprise and disgust hit her mind.

Yes, she had already read the entire report a couple of times, and, honestly, the written analysis of the events had been even more detailed and harsh than the pictures themselves, but…

Seeing them was totally different. A whole, diverse sensation.

She had finally saw the cruelty, the roughness and the utter perfection of that crime.

Every single object, in that scenes, seemed to have a precise place and a deep meaning.

Nothing had been left at the mercy of Fate as if…

As if Uchiha Itachi himself was the Fate.

As those thoughts had filled her mind, Tenten had simply shivered and closed the report.

But now…Now that he was in front of her, how could she "close the report" and walk away?

Fear filled again her being as the cold air did with her lungs.

She felt it.

Now she was completely lost, oscillating as a small leaf in the icy breeze.

Then, everything rolled and stretched, spiralling to the highest verge.

In a blink of an eye Itachi's mouth was on hers, his tongue seductively slipping inside and tracing intricate patterns on her palate.

She had no time to be bewildered or shocked. As soon as she gasped, and her arms automatically wrapped around his neck, in fact, it was already gone.

Tenten forcefully closed her eyes, then opened them again.

She was alone. Her hand reached for her lips, as if she was looking for a reassurance in some hints of heat still lingering on her skin. But she found nothing like that.

She sighed, than jumped off the tree.

She landed on her feet, her hands placed on her ground for support.

She gave a look at her surroundings.

Nothing.

' Could it be…a dream?' she absentmindedly thought, dusting herself.

But, once again, her mind was hit by something: a hoarse, harsh laugh spread in the forest.

Then, it went all silent.