After a long and lengthy absence, I had returned with a new updated chapter for everyone to read! The reason for this absence was because I was graduating from my 'Australian' University with a BA (Bachelor of Arts) degree in Professional Writing!
Hopefully, this will help me create some really good updates for all of you to make up for it. I cannot stress my apologies enough, but rest assured I haven't abandoned my stories. I have just been busily planning and writing down my ideas for this story and my other stories as well.
As always, I claim no ownership of Naruto or Hikari. Just this story :)
Constructive criticism is warmly welcomed and appreciated. Flames will be noted, but ignored! Please note that Hikari's last name 'Aino' has been changed to 'Yukimura' for the duration of this story.
So without first ado. Here's the new update. Please enjoy and please review :D
IN THE END…
"(It's so unreal) didn't look out below.
Watch the time go right out the window.
Trying to hold on but didn't even know.
I wasted it all just to watch you go."
~ Linkin Park.
It was really weird.
One moment, the three of us were just walking, talking and trying to avoid Sakura who was unsuccessfully stalking Sasuke, much to our amusement (and Sasuke's annoyance). Eventually we managed to give her the slip (only of course, after Sasuke told her to "beat it") and Naruto and I tried to start up a decent conversation, but Sasuke? Well, he mostly just walking silently beside Naruto, scowling and brooding about something that he refused to divulge to us.
Were we worried? Sort of.
Normally, this would be seen as typical 'Sasuke-type' behavior. Something that Naruto and I were used to by now. But this day, he just froze on the spot while we kept walking. It took us two seconds before we realised he wasn't trailing along behind us.
"Sasuke?"
His eyes were widened in shock, and he turned in the general direction of the Academy. I nudged Naruto who grunted and turned to scowl at me before noticing as well.
"Oi, teme!" Sasuke ignored him, instead quickly narrowing his eyes and suddenly sprinting towards the Academy. Naruto and I exchanged bewildered glances before chasing after him.
"Sasuke! Stop! What's wrong?"
"Yeah, where's the fire?"
Sasuke paid us no mind and burst through the entrance of the Academy, tearing around random corridors before he came to an abrupt halt and glared down one.
"Where is he?" He demanded angrily to somebody in front of him. Naruto and I edged closer to where Sasuke was standing to see who he was talking to.
A dark chuckle answered.
"Don't mock me! Where is he?!" I looked around the corner and saw a tall blue skinned shinobi who looked like part-man-part-shark, standing there looking overly confident and extremely cocky.
"Who the heck is he?" Naruto asked, stupidly. I rolled my eyes.
"How should I know?"
Shark-guy was wearing a long black cloak decorated with red clouds lined in white. On his head he had a flat conical hat (the kind you'd likely see on farmers working in rice fields) decorated with white tassels dangling all around the brim, obviously designed to conceal a person's identity.
"I'm not his keeper, kid. I just follow orders." Shark-guy sneered, which only pissed Sasuke off.
His sinister, shifty eyes moved away from him, and focused briefly upon Naruto and me. An ugly, amused smirk spread over his face, revealing teeth that had been filed to points. That when things turned to shit. I screamed when somebody grabbed my shoulder and pulled me backwards. Glancing back, I saw a second stranger wearing the same cloak as Shark-guy, only minus the flat conical hat with tassels. He instead, was wearing a Konoha headband with a violent slash through the symbol. At first, I thought I was staring at an almost perfect copy of Sasuke; if my friend had suddenly shot up to six-feet, grown out his raven hair, tied it back into a low pony tail and exchanged his beautiful black eyes for scary blood red ones.
It was the eyes that I feared the most. There was no warmth in them, only cold and blankness.
I tried to wrench my shoulder free from this guy's iron grip, noticing that his nails were a deep plum colour, and I tried to throw him off. It only caused him to increase his grip and I buckled from the stabbing pain.
"Hey! Let go of her!" yelled Naruto. Sasuke had snapped his head in my direction the moment I screamed and for a split second I saw concern and worry in his eyes, but it disappeared when they clapped onto who was restraining me. Then I only saw deep seeded hatred.
"Speak of the devil, and he will materialise." Shark-guy jeered. Naruto launched himself at the older Sasuke clone who had wrapped his slender fingers around my throat and was slowly squeezing.
"Itachi!"
Sasuke growled and pulled free a kunai from his weapon's pouch. 'Itachi' merely backhanded Naruto who bounced off his arm and slammed against the wall, groaning with pain as he slid down. I reached into my weapon's pouch while he was distracted with Naruto and withdrew a kunai, with the intention of at least slicing through Itachi's arm so I could get free, but he grabbed my wrist threatening to break it.
"Drop the weapon."
Itachi's voice was deep and monotone, almost bored. I winced from the pain in both my wrist and my throat as I instinctively dropped the kunai. But I silently cheered on Naruto, who by now recovered and had jumped on Itachi's back trying to subdue him with a headlock.
"Let go of her, dammit!" Naruto insisted. I could see that Naruto was slowly shifting into fox-mode and my eyes widened. Itachi reached around with his free hand and dislodged Naruto from his back and slammed him against the wall, which this time managed to knock him unconscious. He then dragged me along with him like a human shield. Itachi smirked a little at Sasuke, taunting him.
"Foolish little brother," Sasuke bristled and squeezed the handle of the kunai tighter, obviously trying and failing to control his temper. But I wasn't entirely sure if it was because Itachi was here, or because I was seconds away from being throttled to death before his eyes.
"What? No hug?" Itachi mocked, "That's very impolite of you. Mother would be most disappointed-"
"Shut up! You don't EVER get to speak of them anymore. You killed them!" Itachi was unimpressed with Sasuke's outburst, in fact he looked more amused than chastened. Itachi started caressing my skin but increased the pressure on my throat. At the rate he was going, I was going to pass out from a lack of oxygen.
"You're right. I did." That did it. Sasuke snarled and charged, but Itachi blocked his attack by throwing me at him. We collided painfully and crumpled into a heap.
"Sasuke?" I croaked struggling to breathe, but he ignored me and got his feet hurling two kunai at Itachi. Yet again, they were blocked so Sasuke gave a loud battle cry and launched himself at his brother, aiming two kicks at his head. Itachi grabbed Sasuke by the throat and slammed him hard against the wall.
"NO, STOP!" I whisper-screamed due to my sore throat, and launched to aid Sasuke. Itachi predicted this somehow and backhanded me so that I stumbled back into Shark-guy's arms.
"Hold her, Kisame. I have a feeling Otouto has feelings for this one." Sasuke and I flinched at Itachi's words. I could only watch as he leaned forward to whisper something in Sasuke's ear, which made him go paler than milk and struggle to free himself.
"OI! What's going on out here!" a voice called out. Itachi dropped Sasuke in a heap and sped off down the corridor.
"Kisame. Move out."
I was dropped like a sack of potatoes, and I looked up and saw Kisame following Itachi's route. He looked back at Sasuke and me, murmuring.
"Be seeing you … both." Which roused Sasuke immediately and made him take off down the corridor after them.
"Sasuke … wait!" I started just Iruka-sensei turned the corner and saw Naruto lying unconscious on the floor.
"What the hell happened here?" Our former teacher demanded as he rushed forward to check Naruto's pulse, but retreated quickly when Naruto's bright blue eyes fluttered open and he glanced around for a second in bewilderment, then anger when he remembered what had just happened moments ago.
"HEY! Where did that teme-lookalike go?" He demanded, getting to his feet and wincing when Iruka-sensei smacked him upside the head for the loud outburst.
"How many times do I have to tell you to keep your voice down, Naruto? There are classes in session!" He snapped.
"But Iruka-sensei, he was trying to kill Hikari!" Naruto protested whilst rubbing the back of head and wearing a pout.
"Who was trying to kill Hikari?"
"I told you! Some guy who looks like Sasuke!" Naruto was getting impatient and looked eager to race after Sasuke. No joke, Iruka-sensei's eyes nearly bugged out of his skull when he realised what Naruto had said.
"Uchiha Itachi was here?! Are you quite sure?" But before getting our confirmation, he seized our wrists and sprinted towards the Hokage Tower.
"What's the big deal!?" Naruto yelled.
"Yeah, what's going on?" I added, worried. Iruka-sensei didn't reply to us until we had set foot into the Hokage tower and were now walking briskly, with the odd chunin or jounin eyeing us off suspiciously as we went.
"If Uchiha Itachi has been sighted, Lady Tsunade must be informed." He replied. Naruto snorted.
"And you couldn't have told us that before! OW!"
"Quiet, brat!" Iruka-sensei admonished as we came to the double doors of the Hokage's office. Sounds of somebody swearing their head off could be heard and suddenly we were hesitant to actually go in. Iruka-sensei sighed the sigh of a tired teacher who had seen and heard it all before raising his knuckles to the door.
"My guess is that Sasuke is already here…." He wrapped smartly on the wood and Lady Tsunade answered.
"Enter, Iruka and bring Naruto and Hikari in with you."
Iruka-sensei pushed open the heavy door and stepped back to allow Naruto and I through first. Inside, we saw Tsunade looking irritated and stressed and surrounded by the usual piles and piles of important paperwork.
"Fuck me…" muttered Naruto under his breath when he saw the amount of paperwork he may or not be responsible for one day. I giggled at his reaction, but sobered immediately when Iruka-sensei thumped Naruto's ear. Obviously, Naruto's 'quiet' muttering hadn't been quiet enough.
"Language, Naruto!" he barked, as Naruto rubbed his ear looking shamefaced. I glanced over to where Sasuke was seated at one of the guest chairs swearing colourfully, and being restrained by a calm looking Kakashi-sensei. A 'calm-looking' Kakashi-sensei was definitely a sign that something's about to go down, and that we probably wouldn't like it.
Iruka-sensei bowed respectfully to our Hokage.
"Hokage-sama, we have reason to believe that Uchiha Itachi was sighted, along with an accomplice." Tsunade studied us over her interlinked, perfectly manicured hands. Her amber coloured eyes were narrowed and serious.
"So I assumed, judging by Uchiha's current behavior after Kakashi dragged him over here after catching him making a break for it at the village gates." Sasuke calmed down a little, but was glaring acidly at Kakashi-sensei who had casually whipped out his porn and buried his nose into it, much to Iruka-sensei's disapproval.
Geez, can't he take things seriously? I agreed, rolling my eyes. Even though I should've been used to it by now, sometimes it bugged me that we were being taught by a seemingly nonchalant, bored jounin sensei who enjoyed reading porn in front of minors.
"Let go of me! I need to go after him!" Sasuke demanded, finally wrenching himself free from Kakashi-sensei's grip and moving for the door. I stepped into his path and scowled at him.
"And do what exactly? Get yourself killed?" I reasoned, angrily.
"Yeah, teme. That guy's a total psycho! He tried to kill Hikari!" Sasuke glared at Naruto and me and tried to shove past.
"I know, idiot. I was there."
"And now that ALL of you are here, you can start from the beginning." Lady Tsunade spoke up with her 'don't-argue-or-fuck-with-me' tone. Iruka-sensei half-lead, half-wrestled Sasuke back into his seat, and both Naruto and I reluctantly took ours.
"In your own time." Tsunade pressed impatiently as Naruto and I (Sasuke just sulked) debated who was going first with their explanation. Eventually, I bit the bullet.
"Well, um, basically what happened was: Sasuke, Naruto, Sakura and me met up at the bridge as usual to find out if we had a mission today." I began, "since we didn't we decided to head back to Sasuke's to train because he had private training grounds, and it was an excuse to hang out and cheer up Sasuke since he seemed a bit out of it." Tsunade nodded, and waved at us to continue.
"Only, Sakura-chan got it into her head that she was apparently the only one who could cheer the Teme up (Sasuke glared at Naruto at this point) and started hanging off him like a—" Naruto was cut off by the sound of the two heavy doors swinging open, and in stumbled an out of breath Sakura who looked like she was about to cough up a lung.
"Sasuke-kun?! Are you alright, I only just heard!"
She dashed to Sasuke's side, ignoring Naruto and I like we weren't even sitting there, spilling our guts to Tsunade, our former sensei and our current sensei about something more important that Sasuke's current state of mind. Sasuke stiffened up and rolled his eyes as Sakura fussed over him.
"Joy…" He muttered and tried to pry Sakura off of himself.
"SAKURA!" the annoying pink harpy jumped like she had been shot, and turned sheepishly towards Iruka-sensei who was glaring at her for her interruption.
"You know better than to just burst into a room without knocking! Particularly your Hokage's office. How do you know, she wasn't with an important client?!" He stomped over to Sakura and seized her by the upper arm, aiming to escort her out of the office when he was stopped by Tsunade.
"Let her go, Iruka. I'd like her to be here to listen to this." Iruka-sensei looked surprised by the request, but let go of Sakura and stepped back to listen to the rest of our story. "Continue, Naruto." He went to continue where he left off but decided not to when he noticed the 'try it' expression on Tsunade's face.
"Uh, Sasuke told Sakura to take a hike, and then we walked off to the Uchiha compound." That statement earned an enraged look from Sakura, which made Naruto recoil with horror. It was clear that Sakura was going to beat the shit out of him after this meeting.
Fat chance…
"We were about halfway to Sasuke's place when he suddenly stopped dead in his tracks—" I cut off, looking at Sasuke to see if he wanted to take over the explanation. Noting his stubborn glare, I rolled my eyes and continued. "We asked him if he was okay, but next thing we knew he hauled ass towards the Academy, looking determined about something." This time Tsunade turned at looked pointedly at Sasuke, demanding an explanation from him.
"Care to fill in the blanks, Uchiha?" Tsunade asked with a cool tone in her voice, unimpressed with his lack of imput. Sasuke simply looked at her stubbornly, causing Tsunade to lose her cool and slam her fist on her desk, creating spider-web cracks on the burnished wood and sending paperwork flying. Sasuke didn't even flinch.
"Enough with the attitude, kid. I'm still deciding whether or not to punish you for attempting to leave the village without permission." Naruto, Sakura and I exchanged worried glances at each other. Sasuke wasn't acting like himself, and it was scaring us. "But I could be lenient, if you would share your part of the story with us." It was then that Sasuke suddenly locked eyes with me, and I flinched back from the anger and sorrow that I saw reflected in his dark eyes. Maybe it was the worry I had in my eyes, or maybe it was Tsunade's threat that caused Sasuke to suddenly relent. But whatever it was, caused Sasuke to sigh and spill his guts.
"After Sakura stopped bugging me, and our wasted trip to Ichiraku's—" everyone zeroed in onto Naruto, who laughed nervously, "we walked back to my place, where everyone invited themselves to. That was when I suddenly sensed Itachi's chakra coming from the Academy."
"And you foolishly decided to take him on then and there?" Tsunade guessed his motive. Sasuke just glared at her.
"I thought I had sensed his chakra back during our last mission," Here, Kakashi-sensei reacted, grabbing both Sasuke and Tsunade's attention. "But just as quickly as I had sensed it, it disappeared. The bastard was just taunting me!" Sasuke growled. "So when I sensed it today, I saw it as an opportunity to confront him and demand why he did it." Tsunade sighed with frustration.
"If you knew that it was Itachi, why didn't you alert the nearest chunnin or jounin about it?" Sasuke stayed silent. Tsunade shook her head.
"What do you have to say about this Kakashi?"
Kakashi-sensei scratched his head. "I suspected it was an Uchiha, but I'm regretting the fact that I didn't report it sooner. At the time I dismissed it as Sasuke's chakra, since it was similar." Tsunade looked annoyed, but let it go instead choosing to gather more information.
"Continue."
"By the time me and Hikari caught up with Sasuke, he was already facing off against that Kisame guy." Naruto explained.
"Kisame?" echoed Tsunade. Kakashi-sensei waded in.
"Hoshigaki Kisame of the Mist."
Tsunade's eyed widened. "That sadistic son-of-a-bitch?"
Naruto and I exchanged horrified looks. Clearly, we were lucky to escape him, if Tsunade, Kakashi-sensei and Iruka-sensei's reactions had anything to do about it.
"Yeah, he basically distracted us, so that Itachi could sneak up behind Hikari and grab her." Tsunade looked straight at me and swept her gaze over my body.
"Were you hurt?" Sasuke immediately sat up right and looked at me seriously. It apparently hadn't occurred to him that I could've been injured somehow. That thought caused me to feel a little resentful of Sasuke and I flushed with anger.
"I don't think so." I replied. Tsunade probably interpreted my reddened face as embarrassment as she had stood up from her desk chair and walked over to me.
"Stand up please." Tsunade instructed. Confused, I obeyed and watched as her hand glowed green. Note to self: ask Lady Tsunade about her healing techniques, and compare with my family's. Tsunade hovered her hand all around my body, thoroughly checking for some sort of injury.
"You're fine." She eventually declared and I could've sworn I saw Sasuke relax a little before reverting back to his nonchalant pose. I sank back down into my chair as Tsunade returned to hers.
"Do remember anything else?"
"Itachi used me as a human shield against Sasuke. I tried to get him to let go of me by slicing open his arm with one of my kunai, but he stopped me and started to choke me. Naruto ran at him, trying to protect me but managed to get knocked out cold—"
"Aw, thanks for making me sound weak!" whined Naruto, who flushed with both anger and embarrassment.
"Shut it, Naruto. I'm trying to remember what happened!" I retorted, earning a rude face from Naruto for my efforts.
"It was pretty fuzzy from then on, because Itachi was making it hard for me to breathe." Tsunade nodded, "But I do remember hearing Iruka-sensei call out and then Itachi and Kisame ran off."
"Was that when Uchiha took off after them?" I nodded. Tsunade massaged her temples.
"Wow, Sasuke-kun! That was really brave of you!" Sakura gushed, seemingly oblivious to the annoyed glare Tsunade threw at her.
"Brave, yes. Stupid? Most definitely." Tsunade decided, standing once more from her desk chair and moving around to perch at the front of her desk to deliver her verdict. Tsunade flared her chakra and instantly an animal masked shinobi with white armours appeared in the room and knelt at Tsunade's feet, giving her respect.
"Orders, Hokage-sama?" the shinobi asked, head bowed.
"Yes. I want you and your ANBU team to patrol around outside the boundaries of the village and within for any signs of Uchiha Itachi."
Naruto and I exchanged curious looks. What on earth were ANBU?
"It shall be done." He poofed away and then Tsunade narrowed her eyes at Sasuke who stared defiantly back.
"Shizune!" The double doors opened again, and in stepped that same dark haired kunoichi Lady Tsunade had arrived with weeks before, carrying a clipboard and Tonton under one arm.
"Yes, Hokage-sama?"
"For the rest of the month, Uchiha will be helping you with the filing system as punishment for attempting to leave the village without permission." Sasuke's head snapped up and he looked horrified at the mere suggestion. Shizune looked like she was flirting with the idea of looking sympathetic with Sasuke's plight, but realized that there must have been a reason why Lady Tsunade had chosen this particular form of punishment for him and chose a neutral expression instead.
"Very good, Hokage-sama."
"WHAT? A whole month!?" Sasuke complained. Tsunade leveled him with the evil eye.
"Wanna try two?" she threatened him. Sasuke wasn't an idiot, so instead of complaining some more, he merely 'hned', stood up, bowed and then walked from the office without saying another word.
He didn't speak to us for the rest of the day.
A/N: Please review :)