A Tale of Ravens

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The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of those depths.

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

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Chapter Four: Before

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"So today's the day you meet your team, hm?"

Shin's head snapped to the side, her eyes widening as she stared into the dark eyes of the Uchiha boy.

"Shisui..." his name was barely a whisper, but he could still hear the surprise lingering behind it. The red haired girl honestly did not expect the see the elder Uchiha after his initial visit in the hospital, and yet here he was, trying to worm his way into her life like...

She stopped herself mid-thought. She couldn't think of him. Her orders were specific: do not think of anything that makes you feel, and he just made her feel so much.

"Congratulations are in order, you know. Only three shinobi graduated the exams this year, and you were one of them."

Shin nodded in response, strands of hair slipping from her ponytail and falling slightly over her face. Shisui took her in - all of her, this time, not just the sickly looking girl from the hospital. She was tiny, but she was muscular, and while she was young her face had thinned in such a way that made her look older, if only by a little. She wore all black; tight pants that wrapped down to her ankles, a black shirt that fell right above her naval and stopped at her shoulders, and her chunnin vest that had lazily been left open.

"Well, we're almost to the river," Shisui said., placing a hand on her shoulder. "I should be heading back to the compound."

He turned, as just as he was prepared to flicker away he stopped, his eyes wide as a shiver ran up his spine at the sound of her voice.

"Thank you, Shisui."

And with a sad smile he was gone.

...

As soon as Shisui had vanished she had started sprinting. She hadn't needed to, since the river was less than a mile away, but there was just an ache in her stomach left by the Uchiha's presence, and in order to prevent herself from thinking she needed to move - needed to run.

When she had arrived at the river she was greeted by the backs of two boys, and the moment they turned around her heart dropped and her fingernails dug into her palms.

"Oh," was all she could manage as her black eyes locked with the pale purple ones of the Kui boy in front of her.

"Are you serious," Shiro said, his tone harsh as his eyes narrowed, giving her a once over before turning towards the boy next to him. "Hokage-sama's kidding, right?"

The boy next to him - an older boy in his late teens with slicked back black hair and beady eyes only let out a sigh.

"He has to be," he grumbled, "sticking me in a team with a bunch of little brats."

"You wanna say that again, punk?" Shiro growled, grabbing the boy by his shoulder and pushing him back. "Cause I can show you what a brat really looks like."

...

"We're headed to the Land of Waves," the jounin spoke as they flew through the forest. "It's four days travel, give or take. We will take limited rest stops, so have your soldier pills ready in case we run into enemy shinobi. We need to be in and out of this mission in record time."

Neither of Shin's teammates had spoken to her since the day at the river, though they had warmed up to each other quite nicely. Aki Hyuuga was their leader, and he was quite distant from all three of the chuunin that had been put under him - understandably so, since his last team, apart from Testya, had been killed in action and he was still recovering from the emotional scars of losing his underlings. He had requested to be put on a separate assignment, to join his own team as a comrade rather than the leader, but the Hokage had denied him.

To summarize the entire situation, Aki Hyuuga was not happy.

And neither was anyone else, really.

So Shin remained distant from them, falling slightly back in the formation so she wouldn't have to hear their constant chattering between Shiro and Testya, and it was as she stared at the chuunin vests of her two teammates did she begin to wonder what she did to make them all dislike her so much in the first place.

Especially Shiro.

Did his hatred still stem from the pettiness of the academy? Or did something happen at the exams, something she couldn't remember?

And then her thoughts traveled back to the place that they weren't supposed to go, to Itachi's face crinkled up with worry on the sidelines, and she couldn't help but wonder if it was something she had done at the exams that had driven him away, too.

But even though her body was fighting to feel so much - disappointment, sadness, loneliness... she did not allow herself to succumb to any of them. She had to revert back to who she used to be, even if that was a shell of a child with no personality. Besides, wasn't that what the Hokage said had made her such an excellent shinobi? What made her stand out from so many others?

When Shin finally came back to reality she realized that Shiro had fallen back behind Tetsya, and had lined up along side her.

She raised an inquiring eyebrow.

"Having trouble keeping up, Shin-chan?" his voice was mocking, but it was no harsh as it had been before.

Shin immediately turned away from him, not bothering to respond. Even if he wasn't trying to be cruel, she couldn't help but suspect an underlying meaning to his sudden intrusion.

"Come on Shin, aren't we friends? You can tell me if you're having trouble."

Shiro was getting agitated, and it was evident on his face. What was it about this girl, he wondered, that made it so easy for her to pass by him as if he was nothing?

"You're no better than the rest of us," he responded, "just because you beat me in the - "

"You don't know me," she finally spoke, cutting him off, and the brown haired chuunin was honestly surprised at how soft her voice was. It wasn't just the subtle growl she held in her tone at the exam, but her features made her look... fierce, and unkind. But her voice was different; it was kind, but he couldn't help but notice the hint of sadness that lingered behind it.

Without another word Shiro took his place next to Tetsya, and the band of four continued on.

...

"She's been gone for two weeks."

"And?"

"And..." what was he supposed to say in this situation, really? He had been avoiding her ever since the exams, when the flames lifted from the ground and bound the Kui boy to the ground. Shisui had warned him immediately that accusations would be coming - it was no secret that Itachi and the red haired misfit were closer than anyone would have liked, and for her to use such prominent fire-based jutsu would only raise questions about Itachi's allegiance. He had recently been accepted into ANBU, which was enough to stir trouble within the clan, but now there was a non-Uchiha who could play with fire almost as deadly as the heir himself.

It bugged him because he hadn't taught her anything. He had trained her, yes - but only to defend herself against the Ayastura... something any shinobi could learn simply by studying the clan itself. In reality, Itachi had no idea Shin had any sort of elemental affinity, so whose right was it to say he was leaking secrets? But still...

He was the heir to the Uchiha clan, and even if he had already been put on one of the hardest duties imaginable - to spy on them, to make sure there would be no other attacks like that of the nine tails, and at the end of the day he could not handle them questioning him any longer.

So he had decided to stay away. And now, at a time like this when there was no word from her, when there was no sign of her return, he was beginning to regret that decision more than anything.

"Itachi? Hello? Are you still there?"

Itachi looked up to the elder Uchiha, the boy who was his best friend above all else, and gave a soft smile.

"I'm just concerned, is all," he said, his voice flat. "I should be getting back to my mission."

Shisui nodded, a knowing tension lingering in the air.

"You do that."

The elder Uchiha flickered away before Itachi had a chance to leave, and Shisui couldn't help but wonder how he sensed her coming before Itachi, when he had known her for almost seven years now?

...

This wasn't happening. This couldn't be happening. It wasn't possible.

The mission had been so simple even a genin could have done it: infiltrate the Land of Waves, grab the stolen scroll, and get out. They had gone in two at a time; first, Aki and Testya, and then Shin and himself. Aki and Testya's main part of the mission was the make sure there were no enemy forces waiting for them, and there hadn't been, but as soon as Shin had crossed the border they had been attacked. Plan B had been enacted; Shin and Testya had stayed behind to distract the enemy while Shiro and Aki split in search for the scroll.

Shiro had wanted to stay back and fight, but his eyes were a vital part of the mission. Along with Aki's Byakuugan, they were the best candidates to infiltrate the Village's main headquarters - they could see the nemy before they arrive, could scope out the base before they even entered. But Shiro had not signed up to be a spy - he had signed up to be a shinobi, a fighter. He could take out the mass of enemy shinobi on his own.

He was quick and reckless; as soon as they had received the scroll, he had sprinted back to him comrades - to the fight, even though Aki had ordered him to stay back. There was no way Shin and Testya could make it without him, he was convinced of it, and that conviction itself had been his downfall.

Because when he had gotten back to his teammates he realized they were just fine on their own, and while Testya was older and more experienced it was actually the coal eyed girl who had been the backbone for the two of them. Testya was faltering, and Shin was picking up his slack with ease, and once again Shiro's rage had spiraled because he just could not have someone like her steal all of the glory from someone like him.

So he had charged into battle, scroll intact, and it was as if the enemy shinobi had known he had something of value because as soon as he entered the battle ground they all turned and charged at him with their swords drawn.

"Shiro!"

He activated the Ayastura as soon as he heard her voice, counteracting each shinobi's moves before they even had a chance to use them. Shin was running at him now, screaming - actually, screaming, which in itself should have warned him that this was not a battle he was suited to fight. He went to strike the shinobi running at him, his chakra charged at the palm of his hand, prepared to go straight through the enemy's chest but there was a blur of red and black, and suddenly his arm was sticking out of the chest of his teammate.

"Shin..." he whispered, as the blood began to fall from the girls lips. "Why..."

"It's...genjutsu," she whispered, slowly pulling her arms up into a single seal, every inch of her body shaking as she fought to move them. "Kai."

And the mist around them vanished, and he saw the enemy shinobi on the ground, his own sword pierced through his heart.

"There were only two of them!" Testya called, his voice panicked as he ran up to the two. "The genjutsu was to distract you while they prepared they're attack... if..." the boy stopped, his eyes going soft at the sight of Shin's face - strained, full of blood, the life slipping from them slowly. No, this can't be happening again! I can't lose another one... "She... they would've killed you..."

Aki was there in an instant, grabbing the girl from Shiro's arms and pulling her to the ground.

"The other one was taken care of," he said, his voice harsh as the chakra made it's way to his fingertips. "I can stabilize her until we get back to the Leaf, but we have to move quickly. We'll take turns carrying her. We need to cut our time in half or she will die."

And that's how it happened, how everything had gotten just so messed up. Shin was on Shiro's back as they made it through Kohana's gates, as the legend known as the Body Flicker appeared magically to take her to the hospital, and as Testya cried fell, crying out for the teammates he had already lost, and the one he almost had.

Authors note: thank you to everyone who has reviewed/followed/Favorited so far. I very much appreciate it. I hope this chapter wasn't too lame for you, seeing as Itachi only appeared once... but he'll be in most of the next chapter, and obviously the ones after that!

If you haven't already, please check out my new story Russian Roulette. It follows in par with this one, and will be updated as soon as I get to the part of this story where one will not spoil the other. The story follows Shiro's cousin starting in the first season of Naruto.

Again, thank you all so much! Hopefully you enjoyed this chapter :)