Well, it's been a little while, but all in all I think this is a good way to end this Chronicle: this is where Isuki truly dies. And of course I won't mark it completed (yet) because undoubtedly there will be more ideas popping into my head for unfullfilled age gaps in the series. So, until then, goodbye and enjoy!
Regrets
Itachi stared at the wall.
That is, he stared at where he knew it was. He couldn't really see it, but then, he didn't need to. He didn't need to see the bed he was sitting on to know it was there.
He didn't do much. He hadn't for some time now. He wandered occasionally, if he felt up to it. He hardly had a cohesive thought that didn't hurt.
He would have been free if it weren't for Sasori, always reminding him to eat. And he couldn't very well have turned the suggestion down after it was brought up: that would have made him look suicidal. And maybe he was – but nobody else needed to know that.
"Suicide is insanity!"
No, that didn't fit with the others. It was Michiko's voice, but she hadn't said that. That had been Junten. Besides, he was most likely insane as well, so it fit. Insane. Senseless. Crazy. Mad. Disarrayed. Unruly, tumultuous, confused disorderedchaotic.
That was why Sasori still had the heart to be cruel – he was bitter, but he had hope if he even understood the concept. Eris was still out there, somewhere, eternal. Michiko was – … Isuki was – … Dead. Both of them.
How had he managed to kill her? Now he could hardly stomach the thought. Gone.
It had been so easy.
He hadn't been himself.
He had been blaming himself for Michiko. If Isuki hadn't been there, if he had paid more attention, if he had prepared Isuki more, if he had been faster, if hadn't let Michiko out of his sight, if he had locked her in a closet, if he hadn't let her fight…
And then to discover that the onus rested on Isuki. To be able to shift the blame, transfer all the crushing guilt, had made everything so easy. To redirect the self-loathing… Kill my daughter? Why, of course, Sir, is there anything else you need?
Gods, how stupid! If someone else had killed her, maybe he could have lived with that. Maybe.
No, he had killed her himself, not even thinking.
To be able to shift the blame, transfer all the crushing guilt, had made everything so easy. To redirect the self-loathing…
He hadn't been himself.
It had been so easy.
Gone.
"Um, hi?"
He started. A new voice. New voice, new voice new female voice, interrupting interrupting him. He glared up at it. It gave off a strong smell of water. Kisame would be interested.
"Um, Sir?"
Why did it insist on speaking? Why couldn't it just stand there in silence? Better, why didn't it leave him alone?
"Itachi."
"Oh. I was just wondering – see, I couldn't find The Leader, and you seem to be the next best thing – and –"
"Who?"
"Excuse me?"
"Told you that?" He saw no point in killing her. No one else had, so either she was supposed to be here or she was stealthy enough that he probably wouldn't be able to take care of her.
It did his mind better to go with the first option.
"Um, I don't really know. I just got here, so I'm not quite sure what I'm supposed to do. It was someone creepy."
He snorted. That narrowed it down to about everyone in the base.
"What was that for?"
He waved it off, insisting, "Who?"
"Well, I don't know anyone, so…" she trailed off unexpectedly. "You… You can't see me, can you?"
He didn't wince. He had fixed that – otherwise he would have winced every time he had a painful thought. Though it did mean that instead of wincing his arms tightened. It was just trading one reaction for another. After a while that would come to have a negative connotation and he'd need to switch again.
He grunted his assent.
"Oh. Well… I was just wondering, is it okay to have pets?"
"Daddy, Daddy! Look what I found!"
"No."
"Not even fish? I mean, it's not like they get in the way or anything."
"Can I keep it?"
"…Fish are okay. Don't advertise their presence."
"Well, it's not like I can exactly take them on walks and show them off or anything, you know. Fish can really tie you down."
He would have to share that with Maddie, just to know that even if he couldn't see it she would be translucently blushing. Only, he hadn't noticed her around for a while. Why waste energy looking for her? Chances were she wouldn't want to talk to him anyway.
"Don't talk to people."
"What? No one?"
"What do you want me to do, glue myself to you at the hip and talk to no one else for the rest of my life?"
"No. No one enjoys talking." He paused for a moment, amended that statement. "Deidara and Kisame like to talk."
"But… Aren't I his replacement?"
Replacement? What was she talking about? In fact, why was she even talking to him? Why was he talking to her? He had managed a solitary status until now.
…Oh, that's right...
Kisame had died a while ago.
Well, that would explain why Maddie wasn't around anymore.
"Yes."
Something was sinking in…
Wait…
…New partner?
Then who had collected her? Why wasn't he informed?
He asked her.
"Um… I think it was like… Hidan and… Aidaijou…? Or something like that…"
Oh. Hidan had been recovered some time ago, but his new partner turned out to be as insane as Kakuzu was miserly. From what he gathered, the boy had hair like a watermelon gone nova and a necklace that ate people or something of the like. Not to mention the fact that he had to be constantly reminded why he was even there in the first place.
Who forgot that they enjoyed killing people? What kind of sick freak forgets that?
"You can't call people insane when you have no serious moral issues with killing people, Itachi. It just isn't fair."
A small grin manifested, followed by an even smaller whisper. "It isn't, is it?"
"What?"
He had almost forgotten she was there. That couldn't happen again.
"Just… nothing. Nothing."
"Oh. Okay. Well, thanks. I guess I'll see you… tomorrow?" Her footsteps indicated she was turning to leave, but then they stopped and returned, closer than before. "Incidentally, do you know much about Hidan?"
"It's a small base," he murmured, taking several steps closer. "Everyone suffers some degree of familiarity."
"Oh. Well, I'll just be going then. Thanks anyway, though."
"We have a mission tomorrow. We need to… discuss a few things with one of the feudal lords."
"Are you kidding? Already? I'm not going to get any sleep…"
"I could go without you."
"No, no, that's okay, I'll go. I suppose I should be getting used to this… If I accidentally end up sleeping in you won't leave without me, right?"
"Don't go away again."
"Of course not."
"Don't leave me alone with Deidara."
"Never, Michiko. Never again."
"Um, my name is Atogama."
He reached out to her, pulled her closer. "There's no need for alibis on this one."
"There's always a need to be safe, because it's that one time you're unprepared that everything crumbles down around you. You should know that by know."
"Stubborn," he grumbled with a chuckle, shoving his mouth against hers.
Oh, it had been too long. The wonderful softness, yielding lips, welcoming tongue, guiding hands…
Far too long.
Itachi woke up to the strangely unfamiliar warmth of a body nestled against his.
Crapshitdammit what the hells was this?
Michiko was cold.
Not warm.
Hair, a head, resting on his clavicle.
Fingers wrapped snugly around his wrist.
Warmth.
Dammit.
He moved cautiously, painstakingly slowly, trying to escape this with as little fuss as possible. This was not right. He loved Michiko. Michiko was cold. Michiko was dead. This was not Michiko. He did not love this.
This stirred slightly, shifting in its sleep and hugging his arm.
Dammit.
This yawned. Michiko didn't yawn. Michiko didn't breathe. Michiko was dead. This was not Michiko.
"That was amazing," it mumbled, shifting again. A pair of lips found his and he shivered. But this was not cold. He shivered at the contact. Michiko was not warm. Michiko was dead. This was not Michiko.
With this awake he could abandon caution and shut the bathroom door behind him. There had been no going from Point A to Point B, he was just there. He sunk to the floor and gripped his knees.
Michiko would kill him for this.
No, Michiko was dead. He had killed her. No, no, Isuki had killed her. He had killed Isuki. Killed dead.
"Daddy?"
Gone.
He heard footsteps in his room, wandering, aimless, and then an almost undetectable scraping sound. Almost like that of a downturned picture frame being lifted up curiously.
"…Is this your family?" it inquired.
He winced. No tightening muscles, just a violent twitch. "Sort of."
"Oh? Where are they?"
"Dead," he choked, burying his face in his arms, hiding from himself.
"Oh. I'm sorry. They were very beautiful."
Don't remind me, he whimpered. "It wasn't my fault."
"What?" it asked from the other side of the door.
This wasn't right.
He would have to fix this.
Atogama was puzzled, but willing to play along.
Itachi was odd, but interesting. Being odd was usually what made people interesting.
"Come with me," he'd said. "I want to show you something."
"What about the mission?" she'd asked.
"It isn't until later," he'd replied.
"But you said we had a mission in the morning!" she'd exclaimed.
"No, I said we had a mission 'tomorrow'," he'd explained with thinning patience. "You assumed we'd be leaving early."
She'd had no response to that.
"So, are you coming or not?" he'd demanded with a thinly veiled smirk.
And here she was.
"Bring your gear," he'd added, "we'll be leaving from there."
So she had. And here she was. Many hours later. Walking. In a forest. With Itachi.
Well, "with" was overstating it. Not only was it nearly impossible to keep up with him, whenever she did pull alongside him she got this weird feeling she wasn't supposed to be there and had no idea what to do next, so she trailed behind him with little direction.
Much like last night.
She could never have matched him move for move, almost like he was following some sort of internal routine she didn't know. Instead of moving with him she'd been left to follow cues and have everything turn out okay.
And it had.
Then there had been this morning, when he had disappeared. Otherwise she might not have noticed what she hadn't the previous night: a picture frame resting face down on a desk, as if it held something unwelcome. Something better left unseen.
And she had caught a glimpse of the three most beautiful people she had ever seen. And so happy, too.
A thought had struck her, that maybe she had just slept with someone she shouldn't have. But then he'd said they were dead.
Atogama had been vaguely surprised when the Akatsuki had shown up. She had always thought she had too many residual moral values to be a good criminal, but apparently no one else thought that.
She was instinctively polite, somewhat kind, but worst of all she still held on to some childish fantasy of love.
That was why she had been struck by Hidan. He had such a smooth presentation; her mind had jumped to possible futures.
Itachi was much more interesting. She looked forward to spending time with him and getting to know him more every day. And every night.
"Here," he stated suddenly, catching her off guard.
A huge cliff loomed above them. Had she really not noticed the steep decline?
"What is it?"
"This way."
She wondered what was so important about the bottom of a ravine until they stopped next to a little glowing sphere stuck in a ditch. Something brownish grey scuttled around inside it.
"That's the Goddess of The Hunt," he told her offhandedly. Then he picked up again.
She was reluctant to follow, listening curiously to the enraged chittering emanating from the orb. "Really?"
Itachi nodded. "She cropped up about 12 years or so ago, near the old base."
"Oh."
She was wondering if there was anything more he could possibly have to show her at the bottom of a ravine when something loomed up in front of her. It was a towering, black-fringed hole in the cliff wall. An erratic breeze swept in and out of its depth, almost as if some huge monster lay dormant inside, breathing.
Following, ever following, they trekked inward until she could hardly see the light at the entrance of the cavern. She squinted over her shoulder, satisfied that there was still a pinpoint of light behind her.
"What was your name again?"
Atogama pivoted, hurt. Why didn't he remember her name? She remembered his. "Um, it's Atogama, Itachi."
"Right, right." He had his hands behind his back. "I have something for you. I think you'll like it."
Just the way he said it gave her a chill. "What is it?" she asked, drifting closer.
"Come here."
She complied, more curious than ever. In the dark it didn't even seem to matter that he couldn't see her, because she could hardly see him either.
Her mouth opened to ask him again and her vision exploded into white courtesy of the sharp, unimaginable pain in the left side of her head.
Atogama blinked carefully.
Drip… Drip... Drip... Drip...
Her vision muzzed back into something that showed vaguely recognizable shapes, brought back by an insistent dripping sound above her and an equally insistent pulse in her head. She didn't remember a big cave being a wet one, but then, she didn't remember much right now.
And wouldn't water drip down to the floor? It sounded like it was hitting the ceiling.
She tried to get her bearings and found she couldn't move her hands. Panicked, she looked down at them and found it took strange effort to bend her neck over.
Drip drip drip drip.
They were bound together. Some sort of thin rope wrapped casually around them over and over and over again. Like a cocoon of rope. One miniscule strand extended from the lump of fiber and traveled down to her feet, wound around them again as skillfully as a spider with silk, and then went on down in a taut line toward the floor and… disappeared into the darkness?
She shifted her shoulders.
Dripdripdripdrip.
She drifted from side to side, unable to control her movement. When she tilted her head back she could see little dark droplets entering her field of vision and then hitting the ceiling. They pooled there.
Unless someone had rewritten gravity, something was wrong here.
Water should fall down. It should fall…
Oh.
So she was upside-down, then.
What now?
Her right wrist itched.
Perfect timing.
She curled up and bent her elbows up – no, down – no – whatever. Her head bumped the rope, so she went down from there and rubbed the damned itch with her head. When she touched the rope her skin burned tenderly, but she could take it. She was conditioned to pain. Pain was merely a message sent by the body to the brain. There were little assassin-like things in her that ambushed the messenger before it could get to her brain.
Drip… Drip… Drip… Drip…
Exhausted, she let go of her muscle control and fell back perpendicular to the ground, staring at the floor. Her wrist started to itch again.
When she glared at it mutinously her grimace turned to a frown of confusion.
It was covered in blood.
She shook her head, sure she was imagining it.
DriPlerLopIp DripleIpOp
She glanced up at the floor again. Dark liquid was now splattered randomly across the rock…
Oh.
So it was blood.
It was her blood.
She was bleeding. From the side of her head. Where there had been a small explosion of agony earlier.
"Are you familiar with the concept of a 'natural high'?"
She started and twisted around to no avail, merely swinging violently back into place.
Her head pounded. "No," she whimpered, her own voice drowned out by the noise in her head.
"Most people have to turn to drugs, or maybe even alcohol to reach a high. It doesn't ease their pain, just makes them forget that in another, distant world they are suffering. Some higher beings can reach a natural high through severe concentration. Some reach it through un-concentration. Some implement relaxing poses and deep breathing. And some develop a need to kill as simple as their need to breathe."
She shivered.
Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip.
He had hit her. With what? She was bleeding. Probably a rock. Why? What had she done?
"These people are commonly known as sadists. The pinnacle of their world is causing you pain. In order to do this in a world of justice they must be hellishly organized. They are bereft of all normal human emotions, including feelings of remorse, rage, and even love. They are incapable of forming relationships of any kind with the people around them. They are naturally meticulous, intelligent, and above all, methodical. The worst are the sexual sadists, who get off on the brutal torture of others."
Oh gods, why me? she demanded helplessly, writhing. What had she done to deserve this? Nothing. She wasn't even a proper criminal. Only her second day here and she was going to die…
"But let's move away from such dark topics." Something brushed against her arm.
"Don't," she mewled, cringing away from his touch. "Leave me alone."
Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip.
"I plan on it."
Her throat constricted. What? Alone? She would die here. She would starve slowly, or maybe she'd die of thirst. Or maybe lack of sleep. Maybe all the blood would rush to her head and she wouldn't be conscious when she died. No one would know – no one but Itachi.
"Sasori," he called softly.
Wasn't that one of the other members? Wait, wasn't that the one who told her where to find her new partner? Itachi? The one who was going to kill her?
Or worse?
Her attention was diverted by a soft padding sound mixed with the clacking of something firm repeatedly hitting stone.
The shadows around her expelled something huge and white and… fluffy? It looked like a cat, but it had wings, so that couldn't be right. Black wings, all feathery and soft looking. At that moment she wanted nothing more than to touch them. But it had sleek horns, too, also black. It prowled up to her and stretched its neck out to examine her with eerily bright eyes. They were blue orbs glowing in the near darkness, slitted evilly.
It stared at her with severe concentration.
Without warning it trotted off and leaned over, prodding Itachi's hand with its nose. Its tail flicked against her arm and she marveled at its wonderful softness.
Her mind needed something to focus on other than her impending death.
"This is Sasori," he informed her crisply, running a hand absently along the creature's soft foreleg. "He is all that's left of Isuki."
Was that supposed to mean something to her? She tried to remember, but the throbbing in her wound was like a door that closed her off from the rest of her mind. There was one part left open to her that said, "YOU ARE GOING TO DIE."
It was very insistent.
Sasori crouched as if to pounce and shot darting glances at her, turning to Itachi.
"Yes, I brought you something."
Her throat threatened to close again.
She was going to die. Her eyes screwed shut without her telling them to and her arms were unable to reach their instinctive protection position, leaving her feeling vulnerable and helpless.
Funny, because that's exactly what she was. Vulnerable and helpless.
About to die.
Something wet scraped up her arm. Her eyes shot open in time to see the cat-thing's tongue slip back into its mouth. It eyed her curiously. It seemed to have intelligence – ruthless intelligence.
She avoided its gaze and glanced at her arm, eyes widening when she saw it was slick with a thin layer of blood.
"Cats have barbed tongues," her mother had told her once. "That's why the little ones feel like sandpaper. The big ones have much bigger barbs, Atagoma. They use them to lick flesh clean off bones."
She was going to die. Slowly. This was the biggest cat she had ever seen, and its tongue felt like a surgical grade bone saw.
She was going to be eaten alive.
No, she couldn't. She couldn't actually die. That happened to other people. She made that happen to other people. She was a deliverer, not a victim.
She couldn't die… because…
"What about the mission?" she croaked a tad too hopefully. "We have a mission."
"You weren't skilled enough. Even though it wasn't that dangerous, a bodyguard got a lucky shot. You were burned to destroy evidence. No one was terribly surprised that you didn't survive. You were, after all, just a girl."
She sagged at his use of the past tense.
He scratched at Sasori's shoulder with cold detachment. "I'll stop by on my way back in a few days to see how far along you are."
"Why waste your time?" she muttered bitterly, choking back a sob. "I'll be dead by then." I hope.
His head inclined slightly. "I wasn't talking to you."
Bile started to rise in her throat, and gravity made it nearly impossible to keep down – or up, or whatever. It stung in her nose, gagging her.
The side of Sasori's face rubbed against her arm and he purred.
Now, apart from him, she was alone.
Sasori opened his mouth to lick her again and she swatted at him with her cocoon-rope hands. He hissed, hackles rising as he exposed sharp, yellowed fangs. Fairly determined not to be eaten, she sneezed at him.
A chunk of muscle was exposed under the fold of flesh he had ripped up with his return bite.
She tried her best to tilt her head back parallel with the ground, but the vomit still burned her nose as it fell from her mouth.
A pinpoint of white centered her vision, then grew to encompass her eyes and eventually her consciousness.
Itachi left, feeling rather cleansed, and everything was good.
He trekked to the mission.
He learned the Lord inside and out.
He carried out the mission.
He did, as a point of honor, visit Sasori's lair on his way back. If not that would have meant he had lied, and he didn't want something like that on his conscience.
That girl was limp, rotating slowly on her rope. Without reason Sasori stood up and stalked over to the corpse suspended from the ceiling, sitting down with a plop of finality next to it and growling.
"I'm not here to take it away," he soothed. "Just checking something."
He almost felt the kitty's glare, but it made no move to stop him.
"Good kitty."
Itachi took a knee and waited for the girl to make a full circle and face him, spreading the fingers of one hand and placing so it just brushed against her. He felt large chunks of muscles missing and drying trickles of blood that conflicted with the still warm skin accompanied by a small sound like that of loose tendons trailing on the ground.
His grip tightened on her shirt when she faced him, and soon he had found her face, her eyes. He pulled one of her eyelids down delicately with his thumb. No, unseeing.
Then she was dead.
Pity. She had felt rather pretty.
He had expected more from her. After all, it had only been two days. She should have lasted at least another day or two. Anything beyond that and she was also beyond recovery.
Standing up to leave, he ran his hand along the rope. He would have to come back and get it – it was a good rope. It made a faint humming sound when he plucked it that also got the girl spinning again.
Another faint sound…
A croak of breath. "…Hiiiiid…"
He listened, head cocked to one side.
"…Hiiiiiiiiiiiid…aaaag…iiiiiiiiiii… Heeeeeeeepp…eeeeeeeee…"
So the girl was still alive after all. Well, far be it from him to save her. Obviously she had displeased someone, or she wouldn't have gotten herself into this mess. Far be it from him to interfere with justice.
Far be it from him.
"Itachi, where is your partner?"
"Hm?"
"Atogama. The girl. Where is she? …Did you finish the mission?"
"Of course."
"Then where is she?"
"She did not complete the mission."
"…She died? That mission was easy!"
"Bodyguard got lucky. Burned her to get rid of evidence."
"…I see. …Wait, come here. …Why don't you smell anything like smoke or charred flesh or burning hair? …Well?"
"…"
"Itachi."
"…Sir Leader, do you remember Sasori?"
"What? He's right – … Well, he's here somewhere."
"The kitty."
"…The… cat? The little freak thing with wings?"
"Yes."
"What about it?"
"He lives somewhere near the old base. He has a lair, but with Eris there I'm sure he doesn't have much pick among the forest creatures. He's very hungry all the time."
"What does that have to do with anything? …No. No, you didn't."
Itachi laughed.
Itachi did not enjoy being made to wait.
Everyone else had been deployed to go find that girl. Everyone but Aidaijou, that is. They were probably worried that if he found her he'd kill her. Good of them, too. No one wanted a solitary murderer looking for a half-dead girl. They need not have looked if they had elected to take him with them.
But no, they wanted him to stay behind. Some ludicrous reason or other, who knew what. Leader had given him a telling look when he didn't just say where the girl was. Indeed, it had told him, "I am… displeased." And when Leader used politely threatening looks, something was going to happen. Most likely something unpleasant.
As if it was his choice. He couldn't just say where it was. They didn't understand the location the way he did. It wasn't something that could be easily communicated. Value and emotional attachment were concepts foreign to the others.
And of course, the freak had been left to make sure he didn't try to leave. As if he would want to leave.
Although he had to admit he was fairly curious as to whether they would find her alive or not.
The corners of his mouth turned up slightly.
"Hey, what are you smiling about?"
Itachi sighed inwardly. "Nothing."
"Hey, hey," the freak added, almost earnestly, voice coming closer, "can you tell me why I'm here?"
He turned away; this was just sad.
"No, seriously, could you help me out here?" The voice sounded as if someone had taken sandpaper to the inside of its owner's throat.
"You enjoy the suffering of others. Like everyone else."
"…Oh, yeah! That was it!" Itachi heard a grin of relief. "Hey, hey," freak added, "do you want to see my necklace?"
Itachi did not see why he could not be left alone now that he had grudgingly assisted the pathetic fool. He was spent. Done. Social interactions were an effort. He was running on sarcasm.
"Oh, wow, I'd love to, but I can't."
"Why not? It's not like you have anything better to do. …Wait, you're that blind guy, aren't you?"
He grunted.
"Sick. Hey, if you're blind, why are you still here? You must be damn near useless by now."
He stiffened. This had gone on way too long. "Think. I have survived a very long time in an occupation in which many people with perfect vision have been killed."
That shut the freak up.
He sat in silence, hatefully waiting for them to return.
Finally, an eternity later, the sound of an opening door. He almost stood up, then decided better of it and settled for sitting up a little straighter.
"Well, she's alive if that's what you're wondering, although it'll take ages to get her back to health," Leader informed him crisply.
He was genuinely surprised.
"By the way, I would be very appreciative if you did not try to kill the new members. They're very valuable and almost impossible to replace."
Almost impossible to replace replacements? Oh, the irony. Leader seemed to have noticed as well, for he did not expound on that statement.
There followed the uneven steps of someone dragging something and the quiet scraping of someone whose feet are being dragged across the ground.
He inclined his head. "What was so special about her, anyway? She had no power. She was weak."
"Present tense, Itachi, let's stick to the present tense. She doesn't have offensive power."
"Defensive, then."
"No. So I guess it's good that it's this one you tried to kill. …Regeneration."
Shit, was he serious? Regeneration? What a cheap shot. "Without skill she's still useless. Want to see if she can regenerate her head?"
"Not interested: she's an asset. And as long you fail to see her as one you are a liability we cannot afford."
"Ha!" freak laughed. "I told you you're useless!"
Itachi remained perfectly still. If Leader had not just informed him he no longer allowed to even attempt to kill new members he would have been on the freak like tarnish on silver.
"You can't remain a member. Your ties to the organization are now dissolved. And of course, that means you can no longer remain at the base, which means you have to leave. But if you leave, then we'd have to kill you. So we can just kill you now and save ourselves the trouble."
He shook his head. "This for a girl? Regenerative? Hidan is more useful, and that's saying something."
"It's not just regenerating. Her blood contains unnaturally high levels of ketamine and keratonin, for anesthetic and muscle paralyzation. She's her own walking hospital."
"Oh, so she can paralyze herself? That must come in so handy on the field of battle."
"Stop stalling, Itachi. I'm going to kill you now."
Would he really be so merciful? Someone offering to kill him? That was definitely one way to disguise suicide. And technically it would be, because he would let them. There was no question that if he didn't want them to they wouldn't be able to.
But a release from the constant pain that hung over him like the eternal torment of the damned… he would have been suicidal not to pass it up.
"Actually, no, I'm not going to kill you."
Suicidal disappointment, swallow.
"Atogama is."
Oh. That wasn't so bad.
"Sasori, go get – Sasori, stop wandering around with a dazed smile and go get Atogama!"
Footsteps retreated into the distance.
Itachi cocked his head. "Smiling?"
Leader just gave a disgusted sigh. "Eris."
Of course, the kitty Sasori's lair was back by the old base, which was in the forest Eris was bound to, which meant… Well, it meant.
Footsteps, two sets, returning. The girl worked fast if she was walking already, after having been dragged into the base. Possibly more useful than he had first surmised.
He had a feeling he was being looked down on, which was understandable, due to the fact that he was sitting on the floor.
"Whaaaaaah ooooooooo aaaaaaaaaaaaant?" a weak voice hissed.
"Kill him."
"Whaaad?!"
"We can call it your first mission."
He stared sightlessly up at where her voice originated.
"Noooooooooo." Her voice was getting stronger.
"…What did you just say?"
"Nooo."
"You say that like you have a choice in the matter. This is your mission: kill your ex-partner."
"No. I don't have my weapons on me."
Weapons? She actually had weapons? Wonder what she used… He pushed his katana toward her.
She picked it up.
"No."
"You have no choice, girl."
"No, I don't want to!" She sounded like she was getting choked up.
Itachi was getting impatient. "Do it. If you don't we'll both end up dead, and that would be a terrible waste." He tilted his head, exposing the side of his neck. "Please."
She didn't respond.
He thought of Isuki, waiting for the delivery of cold steel. Her expression had been so full of hardness and menace just before… And then her face had flickered. Her eyes had widened in blank horror and she had cocked her head.
"Daddy?"
Well, here we are. The bitter end. I'd love to get reviews and such, but I won't demand them because I hate it when people do that. It would just be really nice to know what you guys think every once in a while. Bye!