"We're in trouble," Hikari said staring ahead.
"Big trouble," Itachi said looking in the same direction.
"He's never going to let us live this down."
"He doesn't have to know." Itachi averted his eyes to look at her.
"Well Itachi-kun it's obviously very well hidden no one can find it ever."
Itachi laughed at the sarcasm dripping from her voice.
"You shouldn't laugh he's going to kill us!'
"Oh no! Leave me out of this one, I told you it would be a bad idea."
"So you're just selling me out."
"Hell yeah I am." Itachi laughed again.
"Fucking stupid Uchiha." Hikari slapped his shoulder.
That didn't stop his laughter until they both heard Kisame's voice ringing out in the hallway.
"Dibs!" They both yelled at the same time.
Hikari scowled and pushed Itachi in the chest. Kicked him in the shin and jumped out the window.
Wind knocked out of him and his shin throbbing slightly he stared at Hikari in shock as she went down.
"Shit." Itachi scrambled shortly after her.
That was playing dirty, but since when had either of them played fair?
Kisame walked in his room to see the mess it had become. Or what was left of it.
Samehada looked exceptionally happy.
His room was a mess of spikes. Sharp spikes he could never hope of getting out from being lodged in the wall.
"HIKARI!"
Off in the distance he heard a shriek and booming laughter.
"Wait Itachi you were in on this too?!"
"I'm just saying I didn't expect it to react like that." Hikari defended.
"You shouldn't have risked it either." Itachi scoffed.
"Wha- okay I made a discovery yesterday! I was trying to confirm my theory!"
"So did you confirm anything?"
"No?" She said hesitantly.
Itachi shook his head. He started to laugh but it was cut off by a coughing fit.
"Are you okay?" Hikari stood up from the floor.
"Yeah it's just a cough no need to worry." He hid his hand behind his back hoping Hikari wouldn't notice.
"No it sounded serious. Lemme see."
"Hikari-san I'm fine really."
She gave him a pointed look. She reached for his hand, but he just kept struggling against her.
Hikari sighed and kicked his left elbow gently making him lose his balance.
Hikari straddled his waist and took his hand in her own.
"And you call this not serious? I shouldn't worry?" She frowned.
Blood was smeared on both their palms.
"Are you taking your pills?"
He nodded.
Hikari got up and walked away from him to lie away from the tree they were resting against earlier. The night sky in Ame was particularly pretty when the rain clouds dispersed. It was one of those nights.
Itachi sighed she wasn't that far away. Only a couple of steps. He didn't want her to worry. But he was worried. Somehow, he could always feel when he was about to have a fit. It had developed a little over a week ago, but he had already learned the signs. He didn't this time, and he wondered if it was getting worse on a higher rate than Yukine predicted.
He wordlessly walked towards his friend and lay down next to her.
No words were spoken between them, but the slight nudge she gave him assured him that she wasn't angry with him. Itachi smiled.
The stars looked really good tonight.
"You know you hit me way too many times in only half an hour."
"Shut up." She slapped his stomach, satisfied with the slight 'oomph' she heard.
"Sounds like you're onto something. Is that why you sneaked into my room?"
Hikari nodded moving the lollipop on the left side of her mouth. "I didn't know it would react like that. But I was just thinking if I could achieve soul trapping or maybe use someone else's to forge."
"That sounds immoral even for you."
Hikari glared up at him.
"If that can be achieved there would be no need for jinchrikis. There would be no need to ruin people's lives for something they don't control."
"That sounds too moral for you. Are you trying to act human? Get good karma?" Kisame rested his elbow on her head.
Hikari unsheathed Mangetsu and pierced Kisame's arm.
"Fucking hell Hikari what the fuck."
"Don't rest your arm on me you selfish prick."
"I thought you already achieved soul trapping. Mangetsu is proof." Kisame nursed his arm.
"Actually-"
"I'm just sticking around with her for a while." Mangetsu popped up.
"Holy shit I haven't seen you in ages."
"You're making yourself sound old." Hikari shook her head. "Besides Mangetsu used to be an actual human being. The tailed beasts are basically masses of huge ass chakra, it's not the same thing. However in theory Mangetsu could be a very good reference."
"Same thing." Kisame shrugged.
Hikari shook her head, smiled and left them to catch up.
"Where are you going?"
"Chuunin exams, you coming?"
Itachi frowned this wasn't unusual for her. She always went to the chuunin exams. She just never asked him to come along.
"I believe your brother is taking it this year."
Itachi shook his head. "If he is, I can't be there."
"What? Come on! I'm sure you're itching to see him again to track his progress."
"If he sees me, it'll all be over for him. He won't be able to concentrate, all he's going to focus on is tracking me down to fight me. He'll leave his teammates behind and fail all three of them."
Hikari frowned. "Teammates? He has teammates? You know in Kiri we've never had teammates. In order to graduate we had to kill our entire class. Then you're assigned to a squad but if a person fails or messes up only he is punished. I can't decide which is better. I don't know sounds to me that failing everyone for the mistake of one person is like collective punishment. Did you know it's a war crime?"
Itachi looked at her like she had grown two heads. "No. And yes Sasuke has teammates."
"Oh yeah right! A blond and a pinkette! Kurikibocho showed me. They seemed pretty cool."
"Oh."
"Yeah they're really good, I mean they did Zabuza-san in. I don't think you have to worry about him passing the exams he should be fine."
"I'm not."
Hikari laughed at his denial. "Sure whatever you say. I'll Watch him for you. Don't worry he's in safe hands."
"Now I am worried."
Hikari gave him a sarcastic smile. "Haha so fuuny. Fuck off Uchiha."
Itachi laughed. Yeah he knew his brother was in good hands.
It's been a while since Hikari had worn a Hitate. It felt a little funny and a whole lot itchy on her forehead.
"You look suspicious scratching your forehead like that."
"I want out with it. I should wear it somewhere else."
"Whatever you say."
Hikari glared at Mangetsu and stopped on the outskirts of Konoha. She tied the Hitate snugly on her waist. "See now it doesn't itch anymore. How do people even wear it for extended periods of time on their foreheads?"
"You wore it for ten minutes."
"Exactly!"
There was nothing left for her to vomit, yet there she was, hunched over the ground puking stomach acids out.
Her body hurt, her mind hurt and she was shaking all over.
Hikari never wanted to see that again. She didn't want to remember the way he bit into his neck. The absolute pain she knew he felt.
She never wanted to face him. Her body was instinctively scared of him. She had flinched when she saw him. Felt adrenaline rushing through her veins when she heard his voice.
Tremors rushed through her body and her flight instinct took over. Even though she knew her presence was completely hidden, even though she knew that even if it wasn't he wouldn't care. He wasn't targeting her anymore. She had double checked her double checking.
Hikari was scared of him. She never felt like this before. Never so...terrified of anyone like this.
In her haze she had accidentally shut Mangetsu out. Hikari hesitantly let down her barriers and opened up her mind. He was gone now. She won't see him again.
She was trying to convince herself. She wouldn't see him again. She wouldn't.
Hyperventilating, Hikari wrapped shaky arms around herself. Waiting for the comforting cold she usually felt when Mangetsu was around.
She never did.
The images ran through her head over and over. His chilling voice.
Orochimaru was back to haunt her again almost six years after she got away from him.
She stood there watching. Waiting. She definitely didn't like this. She didn't like the way things were going.
Hikari watched with a frown the pinkette getting overwhelmed by three chuunin. Props to her of course for holding out like this till now but...
She was being ticked off. Hikari could tell she had almost perfect chakra control. She was intelligent too but where the hell was her knowledge now that she needed it?
She was about to step in. Not because she was a decent human being or anything, but because she was itching for blood.
She had to kill someone. She hated it but That's how she was taught to display power. She needed that look of fear in someone's eyes to recover from what she had witnessed a day or so ago.
Hikari gently stepped out of the bushes to find three genin. The girl was shaking in her boots. Quite literally. The pineapple head was looking annoyed and half-asleep. The brunet was munching nervously on a snack.
They seemed to be talking about something. No, arguing, but they immediately stopped when they noticed her.
Her gaze lingered on the black haired one. He looked familiar.
Really familiar.
He met her gaze and she smiled slightly waving at him. Her sharp canines out in the open for all three of them to see.
She felt them all tense. They were smart then. Hikari sighed and raised her hand in surrender. She wasn't going to kill them. No, she liked the black haired one already. She didn't want to hurt him, oddly enough.
She walked past them, the Nara's eyes lingering on her as she stepped into the ongoing battle, unsheathing her sword.
Hikari could feel three pairs of eyes burning holes into her back.
"Where do you think she's going?"
"I don't know but like said, Sasuke's knocked out cold and look! Sakura's fighting!"
Hikari rolled her eyes. They didn't look like the brightest bunch in her opinion.
"Leaf Spinning Wind."
Hikari's tracks were suddenly cut off by a shrill scream that made her stiffen.
It sounded oddly like Tobi and Deidara all mixed into one. You could only imagine the nightmare.
Hikari's jaw dropped as a green creature sprang into the battle field. She'd recognize that style anywhere.
Looks like Might Guy infected another poor soul.
And he called himself the 'Beautiful Green Beast of Konoha.' Yeah he seemed legit to Hikari.
Guy's student kicked slouched mummy man in the chin then wrapped his hand bandages around them.
She knew that technique. 'Lotus.'
The boy was strong. Really strong, if he could pull off such a jutsu.
Somehow Hikari knew this wasn't over. And she was right.
Zaku stuck his hands in the ground and made it soft and sponge-like.
Hikari winced. That jutsu required a lot. Chakra manipulation and a huge sacrifice. The boy's muscles were probably torn by now.
Hikari sighed and sat down.
She'd love to see how this would go down.
It didn't turn out well.
Not one bit.
Guy's student took quite the beating.
And now the three genin were whispering among themselves.
Hikari was growing quite bored, but something was holding her back from turning away. She had to see the end of this.
And the pinkette cut her hair off.
Hikari frowned. Now why not just cut the girl's hand off instead. She thought it was such a shame to do that. Her hair was really pretty.
And really vibrant too. Hikari touched a strand of her own hair. Yeah she'd have to get pointers from her soon.
Pinky was holding out... Bad. Really bad. She was getting beat up by a guy twice her size and from the looks of it Hikari's age or maybe Itachi's. Biting him on his forearm looked like it was all she could do.
Hikari didn't like this. And a God awful smell reached her nose. It was like a chakra burn. She of all people knew how nasty that would be. She shuddered at the thought of getting one again but kept her eyes on the one sided battle in front of her.
Hikari made a sound of surprise as the three genin jumped out from behind her. Pineapple head's eyes meeting her own briefly before he looked ahead.
"Are you guys stupid?! What are you thinking?! These guys are dangerous! We can't fight them we'll be eaten! Hey- let go of my scarf."
"Idiot, I know this sucks, but us men can't just stand by if Ino's going in."
Okay so Blondie is Ino.
"You can leave if you're scared, Fatty."
Oh no. Hikari knew from experience never to call someone that.
Hikari almost felt bad for the guy.
Almost. Not quite enough though.
Hikari burst into laughter when the twelve year old snapped. That was cute. But the flesh burning smell wasn't.
Hikari covered her nose with a scowl on her face. "This stinks. Who is so stupid to lose control of his own chakra like that. It's almost like a seal is- oh shit! Sasuke!"
Hikari lost focus when Dosu started doing weird stuff. "Good god that is funny." She chuckled to herself watching the INO-SHIKA-CHO. team work. She's always admired that formation.
She really liked how things were going so far. And surprise surprise, their goal was Sasuke probably etched on by that snake freak to test his powers and-
"If you keep this up I'll go all out." Ugh such arrogance. Where do these kids even pop up from?
And why does she have such a dreading feeling in her gut. Hikari's eyes snapped to the tree where Sasuke and his teammate were knocked out.
"Holy fuck. Hell no." Hikari unsheathed Mangetsu and walked steadily more openly in the battle field.
"Sakura who did this to you?"
Nice name not cliché at all.
"Well that's cute little Uchiha Prince is in love."
"Yes it's cute and all but you need to stop this shit now." Mangetsu pushed her.
"No wait! Something tells me this'll be really good I-"
"Hikari!"
"Fine fine I'm going I-" He broke his arm.
Hikari's demeanor changed dramatically and Mangetsu now felt worried.
"Hikari-"
"Oh no don't worry I'm going now."
"Hikari you're not thinking straight, your first lesson was to be not driven by emotion! Hikari! Don't cut me off-!"
Hikari was beyond livid. How dare he curse a child non the less with such a thing. She couldn't imagine how much pain he'd probably feel after he came down from his hig. However, she was glad. Oh so glad that Itachi wasn't here. That he couldn't see his baby brother like this.
Sasuke had already calmed down. Sakura hugged him begging him to stop.
Dosu set down the scroll and just as they were going to escape, Hikari jumped out of her hiding spot, landing in front of the eight genin.
Her eyes blazing red, Hikari swung Mangetsu in one swift motion slicing the three sound nin's heads off.
Sasuke tensed under Sakura's touch as he saw the cold eyes of murder.
Hikari turned her head slightly to look at the Uchiha. He looked so much like Itachi.
"So you're the Uchiha Sasuke I've heard so much about." She smirked at his glare.
Good, he had fire. Good maybe he'd fight that snake freak. Maybe he wouldn't give into him.
"Who are you?"
"Who me? Oh no one. By the way little Uchiha." She was sitting cross legged in front of him in a heart beat. "Itachi says hi." She smiled almost sweetly.
Sasuke's eyes widened.
"Wait! Who are you?! What did you do?! Do you know who that Orochimaru guy is?! What does he want from Sasuke-kun?! Who is Itachi?!"
"Who am I? Name's Hikari, kid. What did I do? Dunno just felt like killing these three so I did. Orochimaru's probably your worst nightmare an no I don't know what he wants from Sasuke-kun. As for who Itachi is, it's not my place to tell, really. You can ask Little Prince Uchiha there if he's willing to tell you anything about him." Hikari shrugged and started walking away.
"You!"
"I have a name."
"You've been watching this whole time right? Why did you only step in now? What did you gain from this?!"
"Nothing I just wanted to see what this one would do." She pointed to the Uchiha. "And as for you, you're Shikaku's son aren't you?"
Shikamaru flinched.
"Oh don't worry you look like him is all. Say hi to your dad for me would you? And Sakura-chan say hi to Kakashi too!" She waved at them with a big grin before disappearing.
She kept a good eye on him. A curse seal was a big deal. It was more than that she couldn't take this lightly. She'd have to tell Kakashi herself of course but...
Her eyes darted around.
Too much people. Seriously since when have chuunin exams been this easy?
And where the hell was Kakashi?!
Hikari shrugged and decided to find someone who was willing to share information.
Hikari pulled away from the guy as the door opened.
"Well surprise surprise, you actually found me!" Hikari pushed the man away allowing him to fall to his death.
"What are you doing here? Do you have any idea how dangerous it is for you to be here?! Not only that, you also revealed yourself to eight genin, and told two of them to say 'hi' to people-"
Hikari pushed her finger on his lips. "Shush now, we got company."
"Yes I know, I told him to come in after me. Lucky I found you here."
"I thought you said you didn't want me here."
"This might be difficult since you already told him you know Itachi." Kakashi gave her a look.
"No don't give me the look. I had to okay?! He needed to calm down. You didn't see what I saw." Hikari scrunched her nose. "Nor smelt what I smelt."
Kakashi shook his head. He wanted to see how this played out.
"What is she doing here?!"
Yep just like he had expected.
Hikari looked severely unimpressed. "You taught him well." She whistled mockingly.
"Shut up."
"Kakashi why is she here?!"
"You may not have noticed but I'm right here, you could ask me instead, I'm more likely to know."
Sasuke's glare turned to her.
"How do you know Itachi?"
"We're friends." Hikari shrugged. "You know I never thought they'd be so much alike." She turned to Kakashi.
"Look kid I'll explain everything later. Right now you have a curse seal that smells-"
"Not the point, Hikari."
"And makes you do weird shit. What we need to do and why I am here is one to help out with this-" she pressed onto his neck. "-and two is none of your business."
Sasuke's neck was beginning to burn.
"Alright alright! Get off, get off!" He pushed her away with a slight blush on his cheeks.
Hikari raised her eyebrows in surprise. "So much," she whispered.
"Maybe you shouldn't tease him so much and get on with this."
"Right right. Well Sasuke-kun I can't promise you that this won't hurt."
"Wait what?! This is going to hurt?!" Sasuke's eyes widened in panic.
"I can't promise you anything is all I said." Hikari sighed. "Look if you don't want to go through all the pain you did back in the forest of death, you're going to pay a price for that. I'm going to give you a brief summary of what I'm going to do. You can decide if you want to go through with this or not. If not I'll simply walk away and have Kakashi do the sealing instead."
"I'm listening."
"The curse mark is activated by strong emotion. In your case it's either hate or craving power. As an Uchiha your emotions are heightened that's why your sharingan is activated by a feeling of loss or betrayal. A strong emotion that triggers the chakra to your eyes. This curse seal is almost the same.
"Your curse seal in particular is activated by hate, lust for power, anger, betrayal, basically any negative emotion that will trigger your chakra network. While your chakra will momentarily increase you will feel tired and fatigued after using it. This seal will take away more power from you than it will give on the long term."
"You seem to know awfully a lot about this." Sasuke narrowed his eyes at her.
Hikari blinked. "There's this thing called reading, you should try and do it sometimes."
Sasuke blushed again looking away from her.
"Anyway, my seal will help you with two things." She held up two fingers. "A) it will help you control the curse mark. If anything it will prevent it from activating unless you are willing to experience extreme pain in order to do so or if your chakra is extremely depleted and you're in the middle of a fight. B) when you do use it, it won't fully activate to it's final stages. Unless you break my seal completely you can't tap into the full potential of this curse seal."
"What if I do want that?"
"I can't promise you'll be the same afterwards. I can't promise you would be you. Are you willing to break my seal that bad to the point you're willing to ask?"
"I will kill that man no matter what."
Hikari's thoughts faltered. She couldn't keep track of her thoughts anymore.
"Do you really hate him that much?"
"Yes, but I'm beginning to think it's not enough."
Hikari sighed. "Are you willing to go through with this? Are you willing to trust me?"
"Yes. If I can endure the pain you said I'll feel-"
"Might feel." Hikari corrected.
"Might feel, at least I'll know I've become stronger. Then if I ever need this mark's full potential then I'll just endure the pain again and again until I rid this world of him."
Hikari bit her lower lip. "Well if you're going to be that way about it. We should get on with this. Sit down."
He obeyed.
"You should let him rest." Hikari closed the door behind her. Another similarity she found in the Uchiha brothers was relative lack of stamina. Sasuke was out cold.
"Thank you." Kakashi put a hand over her shoulder.
"Anytime." She smiled.
"Are you leaving now?"
"I saw what I wanted to see. Who I wanted to see. I'm here on a whim. In fact I wasn't planning on staying here as long as I have."
"What changed your mind?"
"He did." Hikari pointed at the closed door behind her. "I stayed for him. Itachi would never forgive me or himself if anything happened to him. If I left him like that then..."
Kakashi patted her on the head. "Maybe you are human deep deep down."
Hikari looked up at him then nodded. "I'll be going now."
"Have a safe trip back."
Hikari waved at him then disappeared instantly.
Kakashi read the scroll she had slipped inside his pocket.
This wasn't good.
Sure it was great that she could get him such information, but it was worrying how she almost disregarded her own safety.
And the information itself was worrying. They're after the tailed beasts. She said it was a small possibility that the Kyubi was next. That she didn't know who it is but if he does that he should watch out for that person.
Kakashi looked over at his blond student, then back at the scroll.
"If he is in Konoha most likely Itachi, Hoshigake Kisame and I are ones who will come. Itachi would probably volunteer, if so Kisame and I will follow him. If he's here then you don't need to worry, but still act your part. No one must suspect anything." She had written.
Kakashi sighed. This was going to be really messy, but somehow he felt like Hikari was telling the truth.
He still had a dreading feeling building up in his stomach. However it's not because of what Hikari said.
Now how was he supposed to prepare for them to come when he didn't know when they're planning on it. Even Hikari didn't know.
Kakashi wanted a break really bad right now.
I'm here! So first I just wanted to say that This chapter took a day and a half to write. I've never written anything drastically over three thousand words but I can safely say that this chapter passed the four thousand mark without this pesky author's note that I know most of you are going to skip. No this is not a 2 in 1 chapter. This is a chapter in on itself that I decided to upload today on Sunday 13th October to give you guys because I know the previous chapter took so long to come out. Please review I'd love to hear all your opinions and share this with your friends who you think might like this as well. Or feel free to hit me up in my PM's I'd love to chat anytime or just to give me your opinions. Thank you for reading!