4. 殺人と裏切り

"Can you show me more, Mimori?"

"About my powers?"

"Yes, other than resurrection. What else can you do, dear?"

Dear. The innocent teenage girl blushed at the pet name. Mimori shook this off, answering, "uh, well, let's see... I can do ninjutsu. My friend Seiji is a shinobi of the village and so he would teach me a few tricks."

"Really? Can you show me one right now?"

Motivated by his interest, Mimori is pleased to show him two basic Ninjutsu tricks. She showed him the Shadow Clone jutsu, Substitution jutsu and the Harem Distraction jutsu which almost had him rolling on the floor.

Itachi laughed, mockingly. "That is all? My, you have an unlimited amount of chakra inside you, Mimori. You can do better than that. Possibly, you can even overpass the strongest shinobi alive!"

"Uh, thank you, Uchiha-san." The girl said, shyly placing an untucked strand of hair behind her ear.

Itachi stepped closer, having only a few centimeters away as their space. His height towers her by a few inches no less than five. He's unbelievably taller up close, and more handsome. Mimori thought, swooning mentally. "Please. Just call me Itachi." He said, beaming her a smile.

Hearing the gates clanking, both of them turned to its direction. Itachi waved his hand in the air, unlocking the gates without having to move from his spot. He was standing so close to Mimori. She swore he could hear her unsettled breathing.

The old Headmaster joins them near the founrain. "Oh, here you are, Uchiha-" he's appalled once he sees Mimori standing too close to the merchant.

"It seems our moment ends here." Said Itachi. He faced her once again, with this time, a warm true smile. "It was nice meeting you, Mimori." Out of the blue, before he could leave, he leans in and kissed her sweetly on the mere side of her face. All over, she was now as red as a ripe tomato, as was the Headmaster's temper, but he was able to keep it all in. The head monk followed Itachi out of the Flying Garden, at last leaving Mimori in solitude and alone with the strange, pleasuring feeling in her heart. And in the bare skin of her forehead where his lips had been.

She had become in love again.

Itachi

Just as the two men climbed down the stairs in a relaxed pace, Kazu muttered loudly for Itachi to hear. "I see the girl has captured your heart, Uchiha-san." Itachi, being up front, turned around with an interested smile. "But I'm sorry. She's not allowed to be with foreigners, an Amatsu descendant or not."

"What if I decide to live here for the rest of my life? Can I marry her then?"

The old monk kept a stoic expression. "I'm afraid, whatever you put into it, I still can not allow it. Besides, Mimori is already engaged to one of our finest shinobi. He's still young as she is so we just have to wait until they're legal enough to wed."

"I see." Underwhelmed, Itachi gives the Headmaster a moment before he closed his eyes, activating both of his sharingan. When he got enough chakra to endure, next he activated is his Tsukuyomi.

"So horrid! Tsukino..." The Headmaster groaned. Their eye contact broke in an instant as the Headmaster unconsciously falls off the stairs after being unable to resist the effects of the Tsukuyomi. Because it's the most powerful genjutsu, Itachi's is blurred for a few seconds but it cleared up just in time for him to dodge the old monk's fall. I have to finish what I started, thought Itachi. He knelt down beside the unconscious monk and swiftly plunged a kunai knife on his neck. The murder was clean and quick, Itachi was thankful for. Standing up, the Uchiha performed a strong fire style jutsu with all the chakra he has left, setting all of the rice paper dividers around into flames before disappearing.

Mimori

"FIRE! FIRE!" Mimori jumped from her bed the second she heard someone shout. Smelling in what seemed to be paper burning, she looked out of the window, seeing thick black smoke emerging from below.

"Oh, no. I-I better get out!" Panicking, the girl grabbed her black cat, Fazu who was napping, and ran out of her quarters. So far so good, the upper quarters were still untouched by the fire. But once she was about to climb down the stairs, it had now become an inferno. Sweat began to shine through her skin as she forced herself to jump from one floor to the other, almost landing in a burnt area in the process.

As Mimori was beginning to get close on the main hallway, Fazu had leaped from her hands. "Meow!"

"Fazu, no!" Before she could chase him, an ablaze large wooden column splits them apart.

"Mimori-chan, let's go!" A few exiting servants and workers shouted through the hellish ruckus. "Mimori-chan!"

"Let go of me!" Mimori pushed herself away from their grasp and jumped through the burning column, making all of them scream in horror. All Mimori could feel now was the agonizing warmth. She was sweating vigorously. In a few minutes if she remained inside, she would be roasted. But she couldn't abandon Fazu. In all of the pets she has taken care of, he was her most favorite and the only animal who could make her bad days into the best.

Entering a room hotter than the previous one, Mimori froze in despair when she saw Fazu jumped out of a small cracked opening on the wall, leaving her all alone in the fire. This is it, she thought. I'm going to die, alone, because I was chasing something I thought was unsalvageable.

The moment came when Mimori fell to her knees in defeat, coughing up the smoke she has inhaled. In a few seconds, she'd be unconscious. But at least, I won't be able to feel the pain. Mama, Papa, you have no need to wait anymore for I am coming!

Seiji came running all the way from the village, panting breaths aggressively. As soon as he saw the temple on fire, he run for his life. Seiji looked around the people in the safe clearing, most of them crying and injured, searching for a particular face. But he has found none, except for her black cat.

Seiji picked the cat up which had ran towards him. "Fazu, where's Mimori?"

"Meow." The cat answered.

Incapable of understanding that he was staying, he walked up to a group of monks including the Headmistress, Tsukino.

"Tsukino-san! Mimori-san, where is she?" Seiji asked, sickly worried.

Tsukino turned around with the realest frown so far. "I-I don't know, Seiji-kun..."

"The temple is about to collapse! Get away as far as you can-"

Luckily, everyone shuffled away from the burning building as soon as they heard the warning. Everyone braced their eyes from the impact, making sure no flying debris could hit them. When it was safe, Seiji let go of Fazu and ran up towards the temple, which is now in burnt, chaotic ruin.

"N-No..." Tears soon fell out of his eyes. Wiping them away quickly before anyone could see, Seiji straightened up. "MIMORI! MIMORI, WHERE ARE YOU!?" He leaped through a still-burning pile of column, landing lightly on safe grounds. "MIMORI!"

Tsukino's frowned deepened as she watched the boy calling helplessly for Mimori with the other survivors of the fire. She turned around, trying to calm herself down before making the most angry announcement of her yet. "I want everyone to be at the Square. Now!"