Chapter 20
The only way out of today's misery is for people to become worthy of each other's trust.
"Are you ready", asked Itachi. Hey surveyed Soraya's face and her color was a healthier umber color, like when he first met her. She nodded. Soraya avoided his gaze, they hardly spoke a word since she stopped him from creating a bloodbath. She wasn't sure if it was his anger that made him avoid her or her being busy with recovery. However, she could sense that he had a mixture of emotions every time he was around her. All of them were negative. Another reason to avoid him.
"Sora-Chan!" Suzume came down in her regular pants and loose blouse "I made this for you, with the help of Itachi, it should help you control your senjutsu until your body is ready to process it", I picked the design but his chakra is what gives it power.
"Let's go"
"Hold on", said Soraya in annoyance. She was ready to go, but not excited to be with him alone. Soraya turned her attention to Suzume. The two glanced at each other with a sad smile. It was Soraya who broke and gave her a deep hug. "Thank you for being my friend".
Suzume was surprised at the way she melted in the contact and slowly embraced her back. "You will see me again and if you need help, I will do what I can"
"Same", she whispered. With that Soraya and Itachi left.
Later that day both of them stopped to eat. It didn't go unnoticed to Itachi that she was silent. And to be honest he was frustrated with her as well. She put herself in danger and he had to figure out how to confront it without sounding harsh, but every passing minute he knew that conflict was inevitable. He exhaled through his nose. It wasn't entirely her fault he tried to rationalize. She has only been around in this world for less than three years, and it sounded like she came from a life without war and privilege. So her adaptability was not that bad. However, she didn't quite understand the danger that followed her.
"Are you enjoying the fish", asked Itachi. He decided to take his mother's advice when it came to a conflict. Just start talking.
"I'm eating it", she responded. Itachi again took note of the animosity that she expressed in her tone. Soraya felt that Itachi was probing to get her to talk. She didn't want to. She had so much to say, but when she wanted to speak nothing could come out of her mouth.
"You have been unusually quiet"
"You have been unusually talkative", said Soraya eating another piece of fish. "Especially for your introvertive nature", she cocked her head to the side as if to challenge him in his little game.
"Do you plan to ignore me the whole journey", Itachi inquired. He was missing her chatty nature and he would rather her chat about how upset she was or complain than remain silent. It didn't feel right. It unnerved him.
Soraya shrugged, not wanting to talk. Itachi just stared at her. Knowing something was wrong. The problem was she was better at not allowing her emotions to bleed into others. Meaning, he couldn't read her at all. Emotions were hard for him to read. She knew that. So he could sense she was trying to give him the silent treatment. However, he knew that she couldn't help but talk at some point. So he decided to go for the obvious.
"You look upset", Soraya looked up from her food annoyed that he stated the obvious, but also not elaborating on the statement.
"That's just how my face looks", she responded in a harsh tone after a few tense moments of silence.
Itachi waited for a moment to respond. "No you usually have a resting smile, not the sour face you have now", Soraya was pleasantly surprised at his observance of her and any other time her heart would flutter, but the tension between the two was very tense. "Not talking to me is just as bad as yelling and screaming at the top of your lungs"
That seemed to strike a nerve with her and she took a moment to collect herself. Itachi remembered all the conversations of how Soraya's birth parents would argue and she said in passing how displeased she was about it. Maybe the silent treatment wasn't intentional, but a way for her to keep the peace. Either way, it wouldn't work.
"When were you going to tell me my cousins were alive, before or after we were married, or never.", she asked in an accusatory manner. Finally faltering in her plan of the silent treatment. She had no idea why she thought that would work especially with her extroverted nature. She rolled her eyes in annoyance to herself. That's when it finally dawned on her they were going to married soon, an arranged sham marriage, that probably could easily be broken, but she was a teenager about to be married. What even made it worse, she was recognizing she hardly knew Itachi. They talked, he mentored her in shinobi life and fighting, he protected her, but after his encounter with Orochimaru, she recognized there was a lot he was hiding.
"So that's the reason you went behind my back to make a deal with Orochimaru", Itachi shook his head in growing rage. "I tell you things when you need to know them". Soraya raised her hands, clutched them, and let out an irritating groan.
Soraya tightened her lips in anger. "I'm not an infant!"
Itachi perched his lips together avoiding the reply he wanted to say. He learned that sometimes it was just best to listen to figure out the actual reason for someone's actions. At the end of the day, he was wounded that she didn't trust him enough to come to him before making a decision.
Soraya stood and started to clean her spot and the two began to walk in silence. Many thoughts "Just because you left your brother behind, doesn't give you the right to choose for me to leave my family behind", she stormed in front of him.
Itachi's cool exterior was about to break as he watched her march past him. He knew she would stop eventually because he purposefully took the long route to knock off anyone off their trail. Therefore, she didn't have any idea where she was going. However, it took everything not to turn her around and shake some sense into her. Soraya did stop, eventually waiting for Itachi.
Itachi walked slowly towards her and she could feel the rage that he hid underneath his cold mask. "You shouldn't comment on things you know nothing of", his even tone was wavering and Soraya knew that she hit a very sensitive nerve. However, she didn't care because she didn't know what topics were sensitive due to his secretive nature. When that realization came to her, for an odd reason she wanted to press more.
"If you haven't noticed that's the issue is that you tell me nothing", she said vocalizing her stance on the specific issue.
"So you put your trust in Orochimaru?", he replied dumbfounded.
"You didn't think finding out my cousins are alive in Konoha wouldn't change my perspective on things", she countered.
Itachi pinched his nose. "Discussing it with me first wouldn't have put you in an unknown danger.", he said.
" He threatened Masaru and the girls. You have one person, I have five. So sorry if I had to make a split decision, and I chose them over myself", she said her ego faltering a bit at his alternative suggestion.
"It doesn't matter, you are a princess of Amegakure." Itachi sighed. "Do you not know the gravity of your position?", he questioned. Soraya narrowed her eyes giving him a look as if to caution him in not insulting her intelligence. Itachi closed his eyes in agitation and was also a way for him to stop imploding. That would only make her dig her stubborn heels in more. Any other time he would love to see her stand up for herself instead of playing the reserved dutiful daughter. But right now he had to make her see reason. "I was going to tell you-"
"Really," she interrupted angrily. "Do you have any idea how much I love those girls", she huffed. "I always protected them and my brother, they are like sisters" She crossed her arms. Her anger was flaring and for once she didn't temper her emotions down to nothingness. "You lied", she pointed to him.
"I didn't lie", his voice was rising.
"So omitting the truth", she questioned. Itachi's cheeks started to puff and turn red in pure annoyance that was building into the anger he felt.
"Timing in when you learn something is nothing like lying", he said in calm anger. "I was going to tell you after you were fully recovered"
"What did you tell Priya?", Itachi was taken aback at her knowledge. "Tell me"
"I told her, that you were alive", Itachi responded still caught in surprise. "She showed me things it was from her perspective, images of Sasuke, and you, Masaru, you in the hospital, and other images of you being...punished", Soraya's eyes went wide in shock. "I don't think she meant for me to see that, she just wanted you to know how much she cared", Itachi left out the part where he commanded Priya not to tell Sasuke or her other sisters of their meeting. That would require another confession he was not ready to make. Also, Soraya looked embarrassed by the information. "Soraya, I-", Itachi reached out to her and she retreated from his touch. She put up her hand in shook her head. Itachi didn't know but that movement made him stop in his tracks.
"What did Orochimaru mean Sasuke is the healthier specimen", Soraya said softly, not in a meek way, but as a way to deescalate the situation. Itachi was silent and didn't respond. It seemed too long and she processed Orochimaru's statement further on her own. "Are you sick?", she questioned.
"That is irrelevant," he said referring to this conversation. He was hating her acute observations and her ability to read in between the lines. Why wasn't it obvious to her how he felt? That would make things easier for both of them. Then he wouldn't have to explain himself so much. Honestly, he was tired of talking, he never actually talked or argued with anyone so much.
"Irrelevant?", Soraya put her hands over her head in anguish. "You really think I wouldn't like to know that tiny bit of information, my best friend is sick." Itachi was surprised at that statement he had no idea she held him in that high of regard. Even though Itachi didn't show his inward emotion, she could tell that he was taken aback at the new information. Which made her start to get nervous but she continued. "You were the only friend I had in a very long time, even before my life before I came to this world. Am I not that important to you to share something so, so", Soraya was trying to find the right words in her anger. "Life-altering. The problem is you are hiding things from me, that are serious. I am supposed to be a wife to you, support you and I'm feeling like I don't even know you right now. What else are you hiding from me? You know possibly everything about me, things I didn't even know about myself and you asked me to trust you? How, Itachi, How?", Itachi stared at her not knowing really what to say. It didn't register to him that she would take their marriage as seriously as he did.
"It's a progressive terminal cancer", he admitted after a pause of silence. "But it has nothing to do with my performance or protecting you, that's why I haven't told you yet" Soraya stood quietly processing the information that he gave her. The information was sudden and she wasn't expecting it to be that serious. She started to feel tears pricking in her eyelids, she didn't know what she was feeling. "And my timing of revealing something to you should not impact our trust in one another." Soraya's grief turned back into anger. She could feel her tears coming in strong and she didn't want him to see it. She then decided it was the perfect time to use a water clone jutsu to get away from the situation.
As she slipped away she ran to a nearby hot spring and decided this was the perfect time to detangle her hair and relax from the situation. Truth be told she avoided the thought of actually marrying Itachi, after she realized her cousins, which were her sisters in her mind, were still alive her main focus was to get back to Konoha. She needed to get back anyway because of Naruto, there was no way she was going to leave him alone.
Meanwhile, her clone was putting up a strong front. "It does when it affects me", she said fiercely. Angry tears started to penetrate and sting her eyes daring her to blink so the waterfalls could escape. "Thinking back, you barely tell me anything. I don't even know how your family died. Everyone is too afraid to mention it"
"How exactly does any of the information affect you?", He gave a gesture to answer the question. "I'm open to criticism"
Soraya looked up at the sky angrily avoiding his gaze. "I could have let them know I was alive, I would have stayed, and your sickness I don't know how I would have reacted, you got me on that one"
"You would have complicated things more", his statement got her attention and it seemed like she cooled down a little. "I don't enjoy winning arguments, that's not my intention at all. You are a royal subject, my marriage to you is not just a game to me, it's a protection for you"
"Why give the short life you have to me, why not an actual lover or find someone you love"
"You are my friend", he said simply. "It's not a casual connection for me. I care for you deeply", he confessed. "I want you to live a long life, that is my dying wish." Itachi felt uncomfortable with that revelation and knew there was more that he should say. "Look", it was then Itachi took a good look at her face. "How long have you been gone?" Soraya's face paled at his expression. Her scar was on the wrong side, it was under her left eye instead of her right. He cursed himself for not knowing because she was emphasizing with her right hand instead of her left. His anger made him miss all the subtle clues that this was a clone. "Do you have any idea how foolish you are right now?" He yelled in frustration. Soraya stopped what she was doing by the water surprised by the level of anger he had just shown. Nevertheless, something inside of her was glad that he finally had some understanding of how angry she felt.
"Relax, I'm not that far away I've been gone since you started talking and I have enough chakra to use a teleportation jutsu back", she waved off his caution as an overbearing nuisance.
"I'm trying to have a serious conversation with you", Soraya started to hum to herself at the river before making her clone respond for her.
"And I'm trying to subtly avoid it, and you in particular", her clone turned away from him and crossed her arms.
"You can avoid me when you are safe, this is not the time-
"Relax, I'm just detangling my hair.", she waved him off again. Meanwhile, the real Soraya was at the pond processing their squabble. Realization of the implications of this conversation started to sink in within Soraya. The overflowing grief made her want to vomit. She already started to feel the impending loss of her dear friend. Itachi had become her everything in ways that she couldn't imagine: teacher, protector, friend, and now fiance. He didn't deserve a short life.
Soraya suddenly felt a whole squad surrounding her. She continued doing her hair and acted like nothing was wrong. Itachi could see the concern in her clone's face. "Itachi I'm surrounded", she whispered. She hummed to herself keeping the facade that she was unaware of their presence. The humming turned into a simple song that she sang when she was stressed.
As I went down in the river to pray
Studying about that good ol' way
And who shall wear the robe and crown
Good Lord, show me the way
"How many", Itachi asked. "Where are you?"
"The river", the clone disappeared as soon as she gave away her location. Itachi was about to head that way when he saw a man and a woman block his path.
"I don't think so lover boy", the man laughed.
"You have to get through us first", said the woman. The woman had a bladed disc that she tossed in Itachi's direction, he easily dodged but felt a brunt impact in his shoulder. He turned around and saw the man's foot detract from its position. He narrowly missed the blade in his face. Itachi noticed his reaction time getting slower and slower and his body starting to fade. He tried calling on a clone but for some reason, his ninjutsu wasn't working. They were jamming his chakra network.
"I suggest you leave if you value your life", he warned. He knew it was a matter of minutes before Soraya was taken. He activated his Sharingan and tried capturing them in a genjutsu.
They both laughed. "That shinobi trick will not work on warriors like us." Itachi shrugged and deactivated it.
"Fine then", the man narrowly missed a punch in the face from Itachi and was unbalanced. He was only saved when the female tried to slice Itachi with her curved sword. Itachi jumped out of the way and the man narrowly missed the sword's path. Itachi kicked the man into the woman and blocked a downward strike by the woman with his kunai. Itachi pushed her off and kicked her several yards back into the next clearing. Itachi could feel his reaction time slowing down and it puzzled him. It was just a bit, but he noticed.
Itachi shifted his focus on immobilizing the man. Itachi could slowly feel his body starting to grow weak with each passing second. He didn't quite know what was going on, but he knew he needed to end this quickly before Soraya was out of his reach. Whatever their technique, it was more than just blocking his chakra.
As the man rushed toward him, he took off his cloak ran toward him, and made sure part of the clothing wrapped around his neck. Itachi ran up the tree, went over a branch, and pulled down making a makeshift noose. The man struggled for air and tried to rip it, and tugged at the clothing around his neck. Itachi waited until the man was still for several seconds before he released him. Once he dropped to the floor, he kicked his head to make sure he was dead, and if he wasn't he would die more quickly. As the man died, Itachi felt his strength instantly return. It puzzled him but he quickly went in Soraya's direction.
Itachi started to breathe heavily and did a big exhale before he ran in Soraya's direction. His breathing became more labored as someone was intentionally squeezing his lungs. He knew it wasn't his sickness. This felt very different. He knew the woman was on his tail and he had an inkling that she was the cause of his respiratory problems. Nonetheless, he had some tricks up his sleeve in a form of a trap. As he sensed her presence becoming nearer he waited until she was a few yards behind them. Itachi's breath became more shallow as he waited for the woman to get ensnared into his makeshift traps. Beads of sweat started to come from his brow as he was slowly suffocating. He could feel the blood vessels pulsing in his forehead and his heartbeat elevated trying to compensate for the lack of air. It was a relief when she finally crossed the threshold that Itachi needed to finish her. He did a few quick hand movements and a Shuriken decapitated her head. All he heard was a dead body fall to the forest floor. A loud gasp came from Itachi as his airflow came back into his body.
O brothers, let's go down
Let's go down, come on down
Come on, brothers, let's go down
Down in the river to pray
As I went down in the river to pray
Studying about that good ol' way
And who shall wear the starry crown
Good Lord, show me the way
Soraya continued to sing as she slowly put her hair in a bun. At least they gave her time to finish her hair. She made sure that it would be tough for them to grab a handful of her hair. She was already at a disadvantage. As she tried to teleport back to Itachi, something stopped her. Which meant she didn't have as much chakra as she once thought. Or she mismanaged her chakra output in her anger. But that couldn't be right. Anger usually made her perform better. That didn't matter. Additionally, she couldn't use any of her senjutstu because of the bracelet. It would have been a death wish anyway.
Soraya felt that the best thing to do was create a quick substitution jutsu to escape but she couldn't do it. She knew that she had enough chakra so it alarmed her even more. Something was blocking her ninjutsu.
She made her way to her bag and knelt down to open it. She placed her things in it but also grabbed onto a kunai waiting for one of them to strike. Soraya could feel one of them was going to do it soon. She could feel his adrenaline and lust for her. He wasn't the only one in the group, there were multiple that she could feel their desire for her. But the one that was going to make his first move, his aura was more potent and the closet. She started to sing louder while waiting for them to make their first move.
O sinners, let's go down
Let's go down, come on down
O sinners, let's go down
Down in the river to pray
When he was close enough, she quickly stood up and did an upward diagonal motion that connected with his torso. She smelt iron as blood-spattered onto her face. It only took her a moment that the man was fully incapacitated and she followed her attack by stabbing him in his Adam's apple and quickly retracting her kunai to get into a defensive position.
There were eleven more. All she had was some basic paper bombs, three shurikens, and the Kunai in her hand.
Two men grabbed her she smiled as they touched her skin. She knew that she could control their emotions if they touched her. So she decided to diminish their will to fight. Their grip loosened and she slashed both their throats with her Goujian that turned into two daggers. Nevertheless, it went back to a bracelet that was adorned at her other arm.
An arrow was shot and she mostly dodged it but it grazed her side. Her shirt had dots of red but there wasn't any major bleeding. She saw a man coming towards her with the darkest shade of clothes within the group. She saw him coming and prepared for attack. However, she suddenly felt her heart clench and herself being slammed to the ground. She gasped for breath as the wind was knocked out of her. Soraya felt the clinching stop immediately and confusion illuminated her face.
"She is a real Rui, avoid touching her skin, we are lucky she hasn't unlocked her whole power yet", the leader said. "Wear the gloves I made earlier, and don't look into her eyes", he added.
Soraya fully recognized that their goal was to capture, not kill her. If they were going to kill her they would have attacked her on full blast when she killed their comrade. She knew that she couldn't defeat them. All she could do was prolong the inevitable.
"Come now princess, stand down or we are going to have to hurt you, and that will affect our profits", Soraya narrowed her eyes in the realization of what they were going to use her for. A man was suddenly behind her with his biceps around her throat slowly suffocating her. But that wasn't what incapacitated her, it was the numbing of her legs that caused her to fall on her knees. "The money Hanzo gave us is a bargain compared to how much we stand to gain from you." Soraya could see stars coming into vision as she was starting to get light-headed. Her free arm scratched at his face and pounded his arms trying to make him loosen.
Out of weakness, she dropped her weapon and turned back into the bracelet that normally was on her wrist. Images of her brother, cousins, and her home in Amekagure came into her mind, knowing that they would miss her. Naruto popped into her head and memories of their short time together kept surfacing in her mind. Leaving him alone was not an option. She growled as she willed her leg to move behind her captor and flipped him over.
A loud gasp of air was heard as she inhaled deeply and she reached for her weapon, but it was kicked away from her. Soraya watched in extreme terror as her weapon was grabbed and mocked by her group of captors.
Itachi arrived as Soraya was being disarmed and detained. He took a moment to truly assess the situation. It looked like Soraya killed one person in self-defense and injured another before she was secured and captured. They were confident enough in his death not to be on the move. Meaning, it was a matter of time before they realized he was not dead if they did not regroup soon. Would he use this time to follow and pluck Soraya back? Or would it be better to kill and retrieve? Either choice had its pros and cons.
Soraya observed her captors and realized that they did not sense Itachi's presence. She took a guess that the only reason that she could feel him was that it was the bracelet that Itachi and Sazume created to stop her naturally from absorbing senjutsu. She moved her fingers in a way to discreetly signal how many were in the group, including the ones that were not seen in the immediate area.
"That was a little harder than what I thought, even without you being able to manipulate us with your powers. Color me impressed", said the man towering above her. Soraya compared his accent to a stereotypical mix of Italian and Persian. And even noticed the clothes that they were wearing were like the ones she saw in Bollywood fighting movies. Was this world a parallel dimension? She shook her head as it wasn't the time to think about that right now. "It seems like we will have to train you to behave." Soraya struggled as two men grabbed by each arm and made her kneel before the man. "Let's start with lesson one", a smacking sound echoed throughout the forest. "We are going to call you Nadira, a fitting name for the last of the beauties of your clan, you should count yourself lucky that we have even decided to give you name, and not treat you like our other captives, now what is your name"
Itachi furrowed his brow in confusion while observing. Then the realization hit him. His heart quickened they were using basic conditioning techniques and a form of chakra to ensure Soraya would submit her will to the caster. It was a basic technique that predated even some of the Uchiha. Simple, but it had great implications.
"Beautiful name, but It's Soraya", she corrected. "The birth name that my Aunt gave me, I would never change-", she was slapped again harder.
The man chuckled and shook his finger in her face. "I saw how you behave with Itachi, but some men in your future profession don't like...disagreement and I'm certainly one of those men, now try again." Soraya puffed her cheeks in defiance and gave him a challenging look. "Your Itachi is dead, this I know, I sent my best fighters after them and they have never lost a battle even with powerful Shinobi like yourself. Now, what is your name" Freezing cold water was dumped on her and she squealed in painful discomfort. She knew they were using false information to try to subdue her will. Little did they know Itachi was waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike. The man crossed his arm and watched her shiver before he repeated his question.
"If you were a little nicer I would let you call me Sora-chan", she felt the back of his and his ring connected with her nose, as she came back up to her regular position, her nose started bleeding.
"The Autumn air is getting chilly, yes? Why don't you cooperate with this simple exercise", his face was mere inches from her shivering body.
Soraya smiled. "You are going to have to kill me before I give up my name", she said in defiance. "Nor will I have a Master", Soraya started to cry out in pain as her body started to seize and shake on the ground. She felt someone tilt her head to the side so she wouldn't choke on the spit that was foaming in her mouth.
"That is not part of the contract", he patted her head. "You think I don't know Itachi is here", he whispered. Soraya looked at him in surprise as she was coming to. "I can sense people too, just like you, but I can feel them based on their actual anatomy instead of Thoughts and feelings or whatever jinn the Rui like to use", he chuckled. "You should feel Itachi's heart and his nervous system" The man walked around her like a predator. "You know his heart, and lungs they are weak, but when he's around you, it goes ever so faster, a sign of attraction of more than just friends", he laughed again as he knelt in front of her face. "More like a man who really loves his wife, if you submit to the Janjira, I will spare him"
Soraya regained her composure. "I know your plan, if I submit to that name I'm under your complete control. Fuck you"
The Janjira shrugged and smiled. "You Rui's were always so clever, but you never understand when you lost. I'm going to enjoy being your first fuck, and then everyone here is going to take turns until you accept who you are Nadira" The man's lips were inches away from her, then she felt a quick tug and the grips on her disappear. She looked behind her and towards the trees and suddenly some of the men's heads were on the ground and their necks had a perfect cauterized cut.
"I suggest you leave her be", Itachi warned. "Her name already fits her perfectly", Itachi added looking at Soraya. Soraya blushed at his statement and her eyes naturally avoided his gaze.
"It seems like you defeated my best men", the man chuckled as his smile twisted back into a deadly look. "I will kill you for that, all Janjira are like family", the man said in anger. "You killed my brother and sisters, you will PAY", The man disappeared and suddenly was next to Itachi and swiped downwards to his skull. Itachi dodged and kicked the man into a tree. He then went reached for Soraya, but she was taken by a female.
"You, Itachi the Rouge Ninja of the Leaf think you can defeat the Janjira?"
Itachi remained quiet studying the man as they circled each other. "I remember a man with the same eyes and a woman with the same features" The man circled his dagger within his palm before grasping the handle and getting into a defensive stance. "After learning that her Sharingan was not effective in our battle, you should have seen her panic."
"I do not wish to fight " Itachi stated. "I just want the girl", Itachi's voice gave him a clear warning.
"Funny that is what he said 18 years ago. You are the perfect mix of the two of them, I think she was pregnant at the time, maybe with you. A woman with eyes like that would have brought is even more wealth, in my country. But your father didn't even need the Sharingan to fight me, it was a formidable fight indeed". The man took his shirt off revealing several scars. Itachi recognized the scars immediately. The faint ones were definitely from his mother as he recognized the style of her attacks. The deeper ones and the burns were definitely from his father. "The man did this to me, last I heard he was murdered by his-"
Itachi didn't let him finish before attacking him with a solid kick to his side, the man dodged it before countering with his own punch. Itachi held his arm that was going limb. This wasn't good for him. He was already getting tired. Itachi felt his body become weaker ever since he entered the man's presence. It was subtle at first, he felt a slight numb of his legs but brushed it off as being in the same position too long, but when he tried to move his arms it became taxing. Tiredness should have not been an issue at this point.
"Seem to strike a nerve", the man smiled.
"You should know from the fight from my father, that we don't take kindly to the danger of our mates, give me Soraya and everyone will be spared", Soraya furrowed her brow, Itachi's voice seemed to change, and not just an octave, but like it was a completely different person.
"Oh, you mean our sweet Nadira?", The man grabbed her face in mock affection. "She was sold to us, and we received a lot of money for her? Why would we let her go so easily to you?" Soraya was on the ground exhausted. It was like her body was slowly dwindling of energy. She noticed it within the last few minutes. "And why do you care, I don't see that she is bound, and she remains untouched", he sensually touched her breast and squeezed. "For the moment" Soraya winced at the pain in her breast.
Itachi stared coldly at the man in front of him. To the unkeen eye, Itachi seemed emotionless his eyes didn't even change color. However, Itachi was enraged. Soraya knew she had to do something, she wasn't going to allow Itachi to fix her mess alone. This was her fault, and she knew that. Soraya wiggled away from the person holding her down. The person was indeed a woman and she attempted to beat Soraya into submission. Soraya felt the sting of pain from her attacks, but she turned around and tried to create distance from her captor to finally get out of the rope that held her. " Girl Scout Bitches" , she thought as she threw the rope down. The woman tackled her down to the ground trying to subdue her again.
"Get off me bitch", Soraya scratched her face before running towards her bracelet that was disguised as a weapon. As soon as she touched it, the bracelet turned into her signature bo staff, but this time the Uchiha symbol was embedded on the top.
"So it has begun, he has already decided to make you his, and you already accepted", the woman chuckled. "Too bad, you won't be together", The woman lunched at her with a curved sword in her hand and Soraya parried knocking her slightly of balance just before she backed her blade into someone charging toward her. A chain of metal came towards her face and she blocked it with her bo staff. However, that was exactly what the man wanted to happen as he snatched it back with her chain. Soraya gasped and the woman took the opportunity to take her down to the ground. Soraya then felt the woman's weight lift off of her. Soraya was ready to get back in a defensive position when she noticed it was Itachi.
Itachi took her hand and tried to use a teleportation jutsu to get out of the situation, but grunted when he remembered that the Janjira could nullify any ninjutsu. So he started to run, but he felt Soraya's grip loosen. He turned back and saw her clutching her chest. Sweat was starting to come from her brow and her breaths were shallow.
Oh you feel it now don't you?", said the man with a smile. Itachi went down to one knee and started to breathe heavily.
"ITACHI!", Soraya stammered with strain. Soraya's voice sounded like it was fading. "What did you do?", Soraya asked the man standing above her. The man ignored her and steadily walked towards Itachi and bent down. The woman that was dressed in the darkest gray out of the females stood next to him.
"Think of it as her just returning to her homeland", the woman said coming to the man's side and directly looking at Itachi like he was a hindrance. She walked in Soraya's direction and grabbed her shirt to raise her limp upper body from the ground. She slapped her and Soraya knew it was for some type of disobedience. "Come with us and your love will live", she said in an ominous soothing voice.
Soraya's eyes faltered to Itachi's body. She had seen him in battle and had never seen him so incapacitated. Was this going to be his first defeat? What could she do to stop it? The answer was barely anything.
"The people loved the Rui's for the charisma and now one will return with added...sensuality." The woman bent down and sweetly kissed her swollen red tinted cheek. "We will treat you nicely, you will live what people can only dream off, and yes the first years are the hardest, but we have big plans for you, you make us a quick profit now with your body now, but with this-", she pointed to Soraya's forehead referring to her intellect. "You will bring the ultimate power to the Janjira" The woman pulled Soraya's hair back. "You don't want to see your poor Itachi, hurt do you Nadira? Tell him to stand down and accept your name"
Soraya saw the cuts and bruises forming on Itachi and knew the fact that he even had a scratch on him that it was a dire situation. She also figured out that someway that her dwindling energy levels were due to him being able to control the human anatomy, but didn't know the full scale.
"While you Rui control the periphery of the human consciousness, we Janjira control the body" All of sudden Soraya felt like her heart was constricting and panic started to arise as she could barely breathe. She screamed out in pain and her natural reaction was to clench her chest, but the people holding her kept her hands behind her back. "Are you understanding now, my Nadira", the pain suddenly stopped and she let in a big gasp of air. Then she felt a slight headache come on until it turned to a full migraine, she screamed out in pain again as she felt like her head was about to explode then the pain quickly stopped.
Itachi took a kunai and started his attacks on the man. The man parried and smacked the knife out of Itachi's hand and plunged it into him. Soraya watched with a blurred vision of them fighting and she saw Itachi's movements get slower and slower. She saw more hits than usual land on Itachi. She only wished she could help, but the bracelet that she couldn't remove due to her underlying health was preventing her to use senjutsu until her chakra pathways were fully healed.
Then an idea clicked in her head. The man was just toying with Itachi just to prove a point to her. It was her torture, for not submitting to the life she had in store. The man knew she cared for Itachi and even knew that her feelings ran deeper than even she expected. It was a message that he would always have power over Nadira. Soraya closed her eyes about to succumb to her fate.
But her name wasn't Nadira.
Images of her Brother, Naruto, and her family flashed before her eyes. She opened her eyes with determination. She wasn't going to leave them behind, but she needed to think about what could she do? Then she saw it, all of the energy swarming around her, all of the different colors, and variance of energy levels. It was chakra, she could even feel it on her skin, ready to be commanded. Soraya glanced at her bracelet which glowed white-pinkish energy, blocking out the immense chakra that wanted to consume her body. Maybe it couldn't be a part of her for now, but could she give it to Itachi? Could she morph it into his chakra? It was a thought, but they were in a dire situation.
Then she saw it. Every time they tortured Itachi she could see what seemed like a tiny spark going into Itachi's body. Could she stop it? She felt another slap from the woman.
"Answer me", the woman demanded. Soraya didn't even hear the question but she looked definitely at the woman's eyes. Soraya thought about it. If she completely stopped the pain, her captors would pick up that it was somehow her. So maybe she could lessen the pain to where Itachi could fight. In the meantime, she could give Itachi some Chakra to help him increase his stamina. It was something she was working on with Nagato back home, so why not try now.
So like a conductor she took the chakra from the nature surrounding her and inserted it into Itachi's chakra network.
Itachi could feel the chakra surge and knew instantly it was coming from Soraya. He used his knowledge of medical ninjutsu to convert to his natural chakra and heal his wounds and replenish his energy.
The man could sense his power being nullified. And he could also tell that Itachi's body was completely healed. He glanced at Soraya's glowing eyes and knew she had something to deal with it. He signaled to his squadron to flee. The group nodded and proceeded to take Soraya and run.
Before Itachi could catch up with the group to retrieve her, he narrowly dodged a slice from the leader's curved sword. Itachi dodged a few times before he landed a kick to the man's chest. Itachi rushed toward the sword and grabbed it and sliced the man's lower leg tendons. Soraya watched in terror as she got further and further away from Itachi.
"ITACHI!", Soraya bit down on the man's hand that carried her. He yelped in pain and tried to punch her, which she moved her head to brace for an impact that wouldn't knock her out. As long as she was awake there was going to be hell. Which meant that she couldn't allow them to hit any of her pressure points. She grabbed his dagger out of his back pocket and plunged it into his upper shoulder that held her. The man grunted in pain and naturally dropped her. She ran as hard as she could back to the battle where Itachi was still in combat. Itachi needed her help and this was all her fault.
"The main goal is the asset", the leader reminded everyone. "Kill him". Itachi easily dodged the people lunging at him and punched the man, the momentum was enough to loosen his grip on Soraya for her to land in Itachi's arm.
Soraya watched in horror as Itachi got slashed in the arm with a chain weapon that had a curved sharpened edge. He grunted in pain as he turned around and yanked the man towards him. He grabbed the weapon that was embedded in him and thrust it in the man's eye. Soraya noticed the group shifting their intention on her to him, noticing he was a real threat. Soraya's eyes shifted around looking for anything and then she spotted her weapon that was now in its original dagger form.
Her chest started to pound with a mixture of relief. Nevertheless, as she saw Itachi as his eyes went from worry into something else. His eyes faded into a Shariagan that she hadn't seen before. Soraya always felt a cold numbness around Itachi, but what she was feeling now seemed even more dangerous. It felt violent and every inch of her told her she should run. His face started to slowly twist into a sick smirk. This wasn't good, but Itachi needed a weapon to give him a slight edge.
"ITACHI", Soraya yelled as she threw it to him and it turned into a large spear. He flipped and caught it before plunging it into a woman coming toward him before retracting and using the back of the spear to knock away a person coming towards them before plunging it into her face, ensuring that she was dead. Soraya covered her mouth in alarm, this wasn't Itachi's normal fighting style. She thought back to all of their fights that she was privy to witness. He always fought on the defensive. He seldom killed, and even if he did it was quick and blood was never shed.
Soraya noticed that around her everything that the timing seemed off. As she looked up she noticed that the breeze on the tree leaves was moving at a very slow, unnatural pace, but the battle seemed to go at a normal speed. She then turned and locked eyes with Itachi. She was in a form of genjutsu. She grabbed her head trying to think and avoiding his eyes. But why? That meant everything happening right now was less than a second. She thought she was immune to genjutsu. So why was this one different. She quickly racked her brain around the scenario.
"A genjutsu affects the central nervous system of victims affecting their five senses", she muttered to herself. But, she knew that her mind endurance was pretty strong because of Masaru. Additionally, they discovered the immunity way before they discovered their natural Bloodlimit powers. There is no way that she be locked into a genjutsu. Was he truly that powerful to overtake her own power?
She then thought back to when she trained with Kakashi on her genjutsu and she was able to allow him to give her a glimpse of how it's supposed to work. So, was she allowing this to happen or was it his prowess?
It was both. The realization came to her like a tidal wave.
"Itachi stop", Itachi glanced at her, only giving her indication that he acknowledged her presence, but he continued. "Itachi", she repeated his name again. One by one she saw her kidnappers fall to the ground in a pool of their own blood. Another male came to attack Itachi and he simply grabbed the attacker's throat and tore off his arm. It was not a clean break as blood dripped from the detached limb. The man tried to scream from agony but Itachi was slowly closing his windpipe. Soraya watched as the man's face turned blue and her hands covered her mouth in anguish at seeing the man's torture. She finally heard a crack signaling that he was dead. "Itachi please", she pleaded. Soraya wanted it all to stop. It all seemed wrong.
Uchiha don't marry weak women. What Itachi said to her kept ringing through her head. She knew that she needed to stop this bloodshed but her body was trembling from what she saw. She couldn't move and she could feel the ringing in her ears from her heart beating so fast. Would he attack her if she interfered? But when she saw the woman standing a few yards away from him, she felt a spark of life coming from her. A similar feeling of when she first noticed Konan pregnant. Soraya's body started to move on its own. Meanwhile, Itachi stalked the woman like she was prey and put his hands around her throat. The woman tried beating his arm that was covered in her squad's blood.
"Please", pleaded the woman begging for her life. "I won't come after her or you, I will return all the money to Hanzo and the contract will be void"
"Interesting", said Itachi as he squeezed a little tighter. "Would you have listened to her pleas with men continuing to rape her, or go through any training that you would force upon her? WOULD YOU HAVE STOPPED"
The woman wept not knowing if she should answer the question, but she took him tightening his grip as a warning to answer. "No", she chocked out.
"ITACHI STOP, SHE'S PREGNANT", Itachi turned around and his red and black eyes looked at her as if she was a mere annoyance.
"And that concerns me, why?", he said his grip loosening around her neck, only slightly.
"I don't understand, you are the one that values life the most" Soraya pleaded.
"Answer now princess", his grip tightening around the future mother's throat.
"I'm begging you not to do this, she won't come after me", Soraya pleaded. She got on her knees and started to rub her hands together. "Please", she kept repeating.
"Get Up", he demanded. Soraya did as she was told for the woman's sake. "It's not her, it's her clan that will always be after you for revenge", he said dropping her.
"No, No.", the woman pleaded. "To Allah, I will not come back, I have no one to return you, we have failed this mission", she started crying. "Please for the baby, at least let me live into they are in my arms"
"I don't know who this Allah is, and nor do I care"
Soraya quickly got in front of her and put her hand on Itachi's chest in protest. "It's her god, let her go please", Soraya did the only thing that she could think of and kissed him. "Please, this isn't you" Itachi returned the kiss with more pressure and hunger. He only stopped when he needed to take a breath.
"Go", said Soraya to the woman.
"I didn't say she could leave, there are many things that you have to learn about me", Soraya gasped as she saw a sword go through Itachi's shoulder.
"Iara, GO", the woman name Iara had tears running through her face as she fled as fast as she could from the scene. Itachi's form transformed into a flock of that the hold over their chakra was over
Soraya watched in horror as she saw Itachi's hand light up in a shade of blue and dived into the man's chest. The man grunted in torturous pain as he felt Itachi's hands around his heart. "Doesn't feel too good does it?", Itachi said menacingly. The man screamed in absolute agony. Soraya covered her ears as the sound was starting to send her over the edge. Itachi pulled out the man's heart unceremoniously and grinned at the man's shocked reaction before he went to his knees and laid dying. Itachi squeezed the still pumping heart until it burst. Then, he stomped the man's face until his facial features were unrecognizable.
Soraya vomited from the sight, and her legs collapsed as she was beginning to become lightheaded. The hyperventilating started and she knew that she was heading to a panic attack, fast. Nevertheless, she knew it will be forever ingrained in her memory of Itachi standing in front of her with a menacing glare with a dead man's heart still pumping in his hands.