A Tale of Ravens

...

There is no greater love in life than the one we feel after loss.

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Chapter Six: Before

...

Testya Arimani was twelve years old when he was assigned to his genin team underneath his fierce but kind sensei, Aki Hyuuga. They were an idealistic bunch; Testya, the taijutsu specialist; Amari Yukima, the ninjustu specialist, prone to summoning packs of ninken; and last but not least, Shimora Nara, the brains behind their entire operation.

They had been told countless times that they would all advance before anyone else; they would become chuunin within the year, and possibly jounin the year after. Their teamwork was impeccable, their skills even more so, and after two years of working together there was not a single mission failed.

Until their last.

He could still smell it, the residue left after the bombs; the smell of burnt flesh, of smoked wood and burning paper. He remembered her screams - Amari, as she called for her ninken but they never came because before she even had a chance to make a single seal her arms had been blown off. Shimora had raced towards her, raced to save his teammates who was screaming and crying as she bled out from the holes where her arms should have been.

And then there was a final blast, and they died together. Testya... he had stood frozen, watching as his teammates - his best friends, were incinerated before his very eyes, and turned to find his sensei critically injured, his body scorched but his insides relatively untouched.

Testya had debating resigning as a shinobi altogether; he was fourteen when he lost everyone he cared about, how could he go on losing more people? How could he go on to get attached to someone else, someone besides Amari or Shimora, just for them to die as well? He had been useless to them, how was he supposed to aid others as they fought for the safety of their village? How could he be trusted to do such a thing?

Aki-sensei seemed to feel the same way. So for a year, they parted from the standard team setting and indulged in a one-on-one mentor ship that was looked down highly by the Hyuuga clan. Such a high-ranking member should have been spending his spare time training their own, but he ignored their disapproving stares and continued on with Testya. They had formed a bond, one no clan could take away - they were family outside of blood because they had lost enough to know that blood was not the only thing that could tie people together

When the Hokage had addressed the Hyuuga with a proposal of another team, he had immediately denied it; but it was not a request, as Sarutobi had made it sound, it was an order. Loss was apart of life, and Aki had been around to know that. Amari and Shimora were not the first people he had lost, but they had been the youngest, and the thought of children - young, prospering, children - not being able to become adults left a mark on his heart he could not erase.

So it was understandable that both teacher and student would be skeptical about the two newly promoted chuunin who had entered their team. Both were ridiculously young for their ages - one barely twelve, the other one fourteen, yet...

Yet both were considered prodigies in their own right. Shiro Kui, fourteen years old and the youngest member of the Kui clan in history to unlock his Ayastura - already named heir of the Kui clan, surpassing even the current Head's own daughter for the title. And then there was Shinwari Natasu, who became a genin at only seven years old. A girl with no shinobi background who surpassed almost everyone in her class... well, except for Itachi Uchiha.

Shiro was the first to show at the river where Testya had been waiting. Aki had already postponed his arrival due to clan matters he wasn't able to discuss, so Testya was in charge of breaking the two in. The Kui heir was everything the Arimani had expected; tanned, brown hair, pale purple eyes, and he carried to arrogance of his clan Head in the very way he presented himself. For a moment, after the initial meeting, Testya considered that the two could actually get along. The boy's attitude was irritating, but something easily looked over -

That was, until she arrived.

Clad in all black, her chuunin vest hanging loosely off her shoulders, contrasting against blood red hair and slanted black eyes, Shinwari Natasu was not what Testya expected. Only eleven, and the aging lines of someone twice her age...

And the enemies to match, he deducted after Shiro's reaction to her presence. The boy's anger flew, and even Testya had heard about the legendary match between the two only a week ago...

What was the Hokage thinking, putting them both on the same team? And what was Aki-sensei thinking, accepting this? Testya had enough of them already, and it was apparent on his sensei's face as he crossed over the border of the river that he felt the exact same.

Until their infiltration mission, when the girl whose hair was the color of blood ran into her own teammates attack in order to save him.

Testya wanted to hate Shiro, the arrogant boy with no boundaries, the boy who would put a mission in jeopardy to prove his own strength, and for a moment he did. But the way the boy had followed his fallen teammate around like a lost puppy, staying every day at the emergency care ward, taking care of her sick mother when he had never even met the woman before - it gave Testya a new found respect for him, and he began to think that maybe a new team wouldn't be so bad after all.

As Testya entered the hospital to find that Shin had already been discharged he couldn't but think that maybe everything would work out this time.

...

Sasuke Uchiha looked up to no one as much as he did his older brother. Even his father, the fearsome leader of the Uchiha Clan, a legendary shinobi by all accounts, did not compare to Itachi. Itachi, who had surpassed levels faster than those before him, who had become an ANBU at the mere age of eleven - protecting the village, and his clan all the same, but still managed to show so much compassion for those around him.

Especially to Sasuke.

Sasuke, who watched his every move, who was always waiting patiently to return home from an assignment, who always accepted his brothers excuses for not training him even though he knew they were lies. Sasuke, who was only six years old but still understood enough to know that there was tension encircling his brothers very being.

"Where is he, Mikoto?"

"He could be on a mission."

"We were not notified by the Hokage."

"It could be - "

"He's with her again, I know it."

"You don't have any proof. He hasn't seen her since - "

"When will you stop believing your own lies?"

"When will you stop cutting me off, Fugaku?"

"When your son stops acting like he is not apart of this Clan - "

"Fugaku - "

"No, It's not right. How is he supposed to fight for future Head if he cannot even - "

Sasuke stopped listening, he couldn't listen anymore. He couldn't stand the thought of Itachi being anything other than perfect, anything other then the best shinobi for both the Uchiha and for Kohana. He wouldn't betray them - there was no way he had taught an outsider any of their jutsu, and if he knew this at six years old, how could no one else see it? How could his parents not see it?

Something bad was happening, he knew it. But he couldn't place what it could have possibly been.

...

He walked her home that night. They had barely said five words to each other the entire time, but her presence was enough to know he was forgiven. It was about a ten minute walk to the Slums for the river, and they walked so close next to each other that had Shin's hands not been in her pockets their fingers may have actually grazed. He tried not to pay attention to that factor - their closeness, the way she smelled of burnt wood and cinnamon, and instead direction his attention towards her footsteps, which carried a small limp.

Itachi could have left her at the foot of the stairs but he didn't. It wasn't just Shin he had avoided, he hadn't seen Amaya since the chuunin exams and even though it was late he knew she would be up waiting for her daughter. He was logical, he knew that he could not carry the weight of the world on his shoulders, but that logic did not stop him from carrying Kohana's weight, why had it stopped him with this family? The family of two that saw him as Itachi, their comrade, not Itachi, the ANBU; Itachi, the Uchiha heir...

He was right, he concluded as they walked through the door, which was slightly cracked at the hinge. But he was wrong in thinking that the lack of his presence had any effect on either of them, because sitting with her on the couch was Shiro, his brown hair disheveled and his eyes marked with the plague of insomnia.

Shin smiled, and she gestured for Itachii to come in but there was an ache he couldn't place - an ache of unwelcome as his black eyes met the purple ones of his friend's teammate, the only option he felt he had was to leave.

...

Shin's week of remission passed in a blur. Amaya had insisted she be put on bed rest, but the request itself was asking too much; a child that had grown up as a shinobi did not know how to rest. So the twelve year old buried herself in housework and the company of her teammates. Shiro was over almost every day; he would stop by in the mornings with breakfast, and then break off throughout the day, only to return in the evening with dinner. He hadn't need to be told that the small family of two wasn't well off - it was obvious by the very location they lived in, and how the only real source of food they had was rice and milk. Being put off missions meant that Shin's paycheck for the week would be non-existent, and it was the purple eyed Kui that had made it that way. Which of course meant it was his duty to provide for them, if only for a little bit.

There was no sign of the Uchiha heir throughout the week. However, his elder cousin was a different story.

"Shinwari!"

The front door flew open and the girl sprung off of the couch, immediately putting herself in a defensive stance. Shisui took note of how casual she looked, minus the bandages that were peaking out underneath the loose back shirt she wore.

"Shisui..." she whispered. Who was he to just barge into her house? But of course, as always, she put it to the back of her mind - like she did with everything else.

"What are you doing today?" he asked, and received an awkward shrug as a response.

"Good, nothing. Now come on, I have something to show you."

She didn't know what it was that made her get up off the couch and throw her hair in a pony tail, but there was something about the way the Body Flicker's eyes glistened that set her nerves at ease.

"Such an awful place to live," Shisui commented as they descended down the stairs. "It makes me wonder why the Police Force hasn't been here yet."

Shin shrugged, not even bothered by his comments.

"They... no one really cares about us over here," she responded, her voice low as she pretended not to notice the stares of the civilians as they walked out of the Slums and into the main part of the village. "No one here has money or status, we're just... we're the rejects of Kohana, you could say. We don't bother anyone and no one bothers us."

Shisui's eyes widened at her response. He had honestly expected a simple shrug, maybe a word or two, and while her voice was still soft and quiet she carried so much meaning in her words... as if she was really convinced nobody cared for her.

"Well, good thing I'm apart of the police force then, huh? I guess we'll have to make something happen for you."

Her eyes widened in shock - shock that someone she had only met three times was willing to try to help her, but she said nothing because she knew the Uchiha would never go for it. How could they? Why would they care? They were a Clan, a prestigious one, one that hadn't migrated into Kohana's lifestyle in order to keep their name. Why would they care about some poor girl living in a shady part of town, or that shady part of town to begin with? They had much more pressing matters to deal with.

Which is why Itachi wasn't here with her, wasn't it?

But she said nothing because she knew Shisui knew this, knew he was just trying to be friendly... to show her compassion.

They eventually made it to the destination, which was the small graveyard right outside the Village's training grounds. The graveyard that held so many fallen shinobi, and the hearts of their families that were buried with their bodies. Shin held her breath as they walked through the grass, not saying a word as her eyes glanced over each grave. Why was he taking her here, of all the people to share a moment with... it was the one person who hadn't lost anybody?

Shisui glanced over, a small smile working its way to her face as he noticed her confusion. It wasn't a smile of happiness, or of amusement; it was sad, the way his lips moved up and his eyes creased together. He needed the girl with the blood red hair and those dark, soulless eyes to be here - needed the girl who had lost no one to see for herself what the shinobi life was really like.

Needed the girl who was about to lose everyone to know that the hearts of her comrades would always be close, and always be with her.

He could only hope she was smart enough to understand.