Author's Notes: Wow guys, sorry this chapter was not as quick as the others. I'm in the middle of finals so very little time for anything but work. I managed to write this on some downtime, so forgive me if it's slightly cheesy. I tried to stay true to the characters.

Disclaimer: Naruto (c) Kishimoto, Miya (c) me.

Chapter 6

Miya took the last bite of her cold dinner, swallowing it hard. Slumping back, she glanced up at the small window, spotting a few stars peeking behind wispy clouds, a cold wind whistling past. The food settled uncomfortably in her stomach and she put her hand over it. With a little grimace, she stood up and slid back to her bed, lying down once more. Sighing, she stared up at the ceiling, the blackness of night almost making it disappear.

"You're not tired already, are you," asked a deep voice. She felt a chill tickle her spine and sat up, staring over at Itachi in her doorway. His gaze cut away from hers to her quarters.

"So, Kisame chose this cell…" he said, thinking out loud purposely. Her eyes twitched once, catching the not so subtle affirmation that she was a prisoner.

"What do you want with me?"

"I told you before. Are you that forgetful?" Itachi glanced briefly at his nails then over to her.

"I meant, why didn't you make it easier for yourself…?" And end this hell for me, she thought.

"Unfortunately, I need you alive," he said, but he didn't understand what she meant. "Get up and follow me. "

She stood and followed, more desirous of leaving the cramped, cold room than avoiding an unknown, potential danger. Shivering, she stepped into the hallway, rubbing her arms. Itachi looked away and started down the way she'd come with Kisame. There was no way to tell what time it was in the halls, the lights always the same. Miya looked at them as she passed beneath, the corner of her eye on Itachi's form.

The electric lights suddenly ended, the hall beginning to darken before the warm glow of lanterns assumed the task of lighting the path. She lowered her eyes and stopped short, looking around in surprise. The walls on the outer side were polished stone, and on the inner side, paper and wood screens lined the rest of the hall. A weight hung in her chest. It was so much like home.

"Don't be idle," Itachi scolded from the end of the hall, the door panel slid open. The light from inside cast a warm glow on half his face, the other partially obscured in darkness. She came up to him and he stepped back for her to enter.

The room Miya stepped into was so unlike the rest of the place. There was a lower floor for shoes and belongings just beside the doorway and another towards the middle with a large, black lacquered table, floor cushions set beside it on each side. The upper floor, had beautiful crimson curtains hung around the entire room, except around three screens where a bluish light cast faint shadows on the floorboards, and tall shoji screen lanterns cast light from every corner, a smaller lantern set in the middle of the table. In the middle of one wall, another pair of screen doors hid away a different section of the room. She was frozen in place, awed by the sight before her.

Itachi slid the door closed behind him and with shoes removed, stepped up to the higher floor, walking towards the table. A scroll, pen and inkwell lay on top of the table, a bowl beside them. He pulled up a sleeve of his coat, and picking up the pen, began to write, not taking any notice of her. Miya watched the serious expression on his face, and finding it unchanged for at least ten minutes, her attention strayed to other parts of the room. She felt so out of place: her hair was disheveled, clothes stained and ragged, and body unwashed. It doesn't matter, she thought. I'm not here to impress anyone. She looked to Itachi again.

He stared straight ahead, paused in a thought. His eyes unfocused and body relaxed as his mind strayed to a far distance in his conscious. Gently lit as he was, his demeanor didn't seem so cold. He was almost approachable if not for his intense staring into nothingness. His eyes shifted to her and he turned his head slightly.

"Come, sit," he said, more welcoming than Miya would have expected. She moved forward, stepping up on the raised level and approached, taking a place perpendicular to him. Itachi resumed writing. His eyes distracted, she examined his face more closely. His angles were emphasized by the dark shadows, his cheekbones standing out the most. His hair gently brushed over his cheeks, glimmering with a golden hue, his long, dark eyelashes casting faint shadows just below his eyelids. Two clefts marked each side of his face. His nose was slender, just the right proportions for his face, and his lips the same: just right with a delicate shape and a slight pout, although it looked more like a grimace now. He was extremely handsome; and if not for his crime, he would have been all the pride of the Uchiha clan.

"What do you find so interesting?" Miya snapped to attention, finding Itachi's eyes on her own. She was stumped for an answer then, her cheeks starting to get warm. He waited a minute before reaching out and taking her wrist.

His grasp was suddenly tight and all feeling of safety fled. Itachi pulled out a kunai and cut a clean line across her upper wrist. She winced, sucking in her breath and tried to pull back. His hand only held tighter, the other squeezing and rubbing down her arm to help the blood flow out. Miya squeezed her eyes closed, not wanting to see the red fluids drip from her wound. It stung painfully, her whole arm starting to tingle and loose feeling.

"Ah! I-Itachi, stop!" She tried again to pull her arm back, her fingers numbing from lack of circulation. He only continued, ignoring her pleas.

"STOP!" Miya cried louder, her arm gradually going numb too. He rubbed twice more before letting her go. She grabbed to the wound, holding it in to herself, tears of shock welling in her eyes. Itachi stood calmly and walked out of her sight. Miya sniffed, confused and shaken and a moment later he returned, reaching for her arm again, but she turned from him.

"No!" she cried. He said nothing, taking hold of her wrist regardless and wrenched it away from her forcefully. She didn't struggle as much, so as not to injure herself further, but she trembled, looking away, afraid of what other thing he was planning to do.

"I'm done," Itachi said to her, letting go of a now bandaged wrist. She opened her eyes and folded her arm against herself, looking up at him perplexed and upset. He ignored her, beginning to write once again, as if he had done nothing. Miya's lips tightened.

"Itachi, why did you do that?"

He continued with his task. She narrowed her eyes, her tears dripping down her face.

"Itachi, don't ignore me! You don't just take someone's blood and not tell them why!" Then she remembered: that was the only reason he was keeping her. She looked down at the bowl. It was about the size of a rice bowl, nearly full of her blood rather than rice. Something about it scared her. Is he going to do this every night, she wondered. She would die.

Miya gasped, suddenly feeling the urge to move away from Itachi very quickly. He was going to kill her, slowly and painfully. The meager dinner she was served was her only rejuvenation and each night he would slit a part of her body and drain it!

She shook her head. No, no…he wouldn't, she thought and looked up at him. He still sat calmly; his pen paused above the paper. But it's possible, she thought again. She didn't know his mind, what kind of reasoning he had. He very well could be trying to kill her. He murdered their entire clan after all, and it would make sense that he would want to finish it completely. But he let her go.

"You'll hurt your head trying to read into me," he said, cutting through her reasoning. Miya looked to him again, her eyes full of uncertainty. Itachi set down his pen, rolling up the scroll and looked up at her.

"Leave, I'm done with you."

"I want to know why."

"…. It's not for you to know," he said, turning away and standing up. She stood as well.

"I have a right to know! You drag me up here—no, your subordinate drags me up here and throws me into a miserable hole in the wall, I get a cold dinner that's tastes like it's two days old and now my wrist has been slit and my arm bled without any consent or explanati—achk!"

Itachi grabbed her throat, slamming her to the floor. Her eyes went wide before squeezing shut, her hands clawing into his arm, his fingers tightening around her.

"Don't get cocky. I explained what I wanted before I presented your choices. You chose to come, therefore accept the consequences of it." She squirmed, her body twitching in need of air, and she let out a strangled scream for as long as she could before her consciousness began to slip and her hands could no longer defend her. He let go then, and she gasped and coughed, turning over. Itachi stood up.

"Kisame," he called. The shark man slid the door open, having stood nearby since he heard Miya scream. Kisame glanced down at the girl then back to Itachi.

"Take her back to her room. If she complains of anything, you are at liberty to silence her as you will…except to kill her," Itachi added, knowing Kisame's temperament towards her.

Miya felt herself picked up as she was still coughing. Her head felt like it'd been split in half, a bruise formed in the back of her head. She felt lucky to only have that. The room distorted before her eyes and she closed them to avoid becoming sick. She was coherent enough to recognize Kisame's gruff handling of her and a moment later the stone-like mattress was beneath her. Miya groaned, opening her eyes slowly. She was alone again, the tiny room swaying slightly in the darkness. She closed them, silent tears making damp spots on her pillow.

Well I updated and I'm too tired to look at comments to make a comment, so stay tuned for Chapter 7.