Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine and Kisame does not collect thimbles…to the best of my knowledge.
Chapter 10: Of Smoothies, Betrayal, and Darkness
Temeki placed her hunter mask on the coffee table and looked around. If she didn't know any better, she'd think that the place belonged to a normal person instead of a couple of S-rank criminals.
Everything was clean and neat and obviously well cared for.
She stopped next to a side table and was surprised to see pictures on it.
Most of them were group pictures. She recognized Kisame, Zabuza, and Raiga of the Seven Shinobi Lords in one of the pictures. She didn't know who the other four were, but since it was a group picture, she figured that they were the other Swordsmen. A group picture of several Akatsuki members was placed in the center of the table.
Temeki only had a glimpse of five people standing around a bloody deer before a series of framed pictures on the wall caught her eye.
These weren't photographs like the others. Instead, they were sketches.
The first was a sketch of a young looking boy with dark hair that spiked up in the back, but had long bangs that covered some of his face. The boy looked angry at something or someone. His eyes were dark red and his left hand looked like it was holding some sort of energy ball. Whitish-blue streaks zigzagged across the page from his hand and Temeki assumed that the streaks were meant to be lightning.
Standing behind and to the right of the boy was an older looking teen, who looked exactly like the boy. Only his dark hair was long and held down in a ponytail at the back of his neck. He had red eyes also, but had two scars under those eyes. He wore a black cloak with red clouds on it and a bored expression on his face.
Temeki looked at the corner of the sketch and noticed a series of black lines. She knew instinctively that the lines were actually the artist's signature, but she couldn't read the characters.
She looked at the second sketch and nearly gasped at what she saw.
The same boy from the first sketch stood on a peaceful lake. His eyes were still red, but black marks covered most of the exposed skin on his body. But what surprised Temeki the most was the fact that the boy was covered in blood.
Floating at the boy's feet was a blonde boy wearing an orange jumpsuit. Temeki could see that the artist had placed the blonde at an angle so that the hole in his chest could clearly be seen. Blood pooled in the water around him.
The left hand of the boy standing on the water was covered in blood.
Temeki looked at the corner and saw the same black lines that were in the first sketch.
She looked at the third and this time did gasp at what she saw.
It was a portrait of Gaara.
But this wasn't the Gaara that she knew. This Gaara looked to be about seven or six years old. He didn't have the 'love' kanji on his forehead and there was an innocence in the boy's green eyes that made Temeki's heart ache for him. Gaara stared out of the picture and the artist managed to capture the pain, hope, and loneliness in them.
She didn't have to look in the corner of the sketch this time.
The last sketch wasn't colored in like the others. Instead, it was done in black and white. The artist's skill was evident in the way the picture was shaded and drawn.
Temeki recognized the blonde and the dark haired boy from the first two sketches from their features alone. They occupied the left of the picture. The blonde, she knew that it was Naruto, was drawn looking over his shoulder at something. His hands were in the Master Seal and the boy was smiling broadly at someone.
The dark-haired boy, Temeki knew that it couldn't be anyone other than Sasuke, stood in the foreground in a battle stance. For once, his eyes weren't red. This time, they were fathomless black.
On the right side of the picture were two Konoha ninja. One had a scar across the bridge of his nose and hair that was up in a ponytail. He had a kunai in his hand and looked like he was yelling at someone.
The other was a thinner, taller man with whitish hair that stood up at an odd angle. He had on a jounin vest and his forehead protector was tilted over one eye. He held one hand in front of his masked face and rested the other on his lean hip.
In the very center of the picture was a girl. Her clothes and hair seemed to be caught in a whirlwind as she stood with her hands behind her back. Where the men in the picture were drawn from the chest or waist up, the girl's whole body was sketched in. This made her seem smaller and more fragile than the others.
It was the look in her eyes that Temeki was drawn to.
They looked full of pain and hope.
They were like Gaara's eyes were in the previous sketch.
She looked at the black markings in the corner and turned to Itachi.
"Did you draw these?" she asked, awe evident in her voice. (1)
"No," the Akatsuki member smirked.
"Then who did?"
"That's a question that will have to be answered later," Itachi said. He stood up and walked through the dining room. Temeki followed and soon found herself in a large chrome kitchen.
"The Kazekage's Mansion doesn't have a kitchen this fine," she whistled.
"Kisame likes to cook."
"…"
"I know."
"…"
"Can you cook? Because I'm hungry and Kisame swore to kill me if I touched his stove," Itachi admitted.
Temeki was confused in a big way.
These two were Akatsuki members. They were criminals and missing nins. Why were they acting…human?
"Being evil all of the time is draining," Itachi said, reading her mind and leaning against a counter. "We needed a place to relax. Every Akatsuki member has one. Kisame and I just decided that we could share ours. It's no big deal."
She looked on with something akin to horror as Itachi deactivated his Sharingan, revealing dark, emotionless eyes. He reached into a drawer and took out a pair of glasses and put them on.
"…"
"I know," the missing nin repeated.
"…"
Those are really thick glasses, she thought to herself.
"You might want to deactivate your Sharingan, too," he said, calmly. "Keeping it for too long ruins your eyesight."
Temeki deactivated her Sharingan and stared as he opened the fridge and looked at its contents. He held up a package of butter and looked at the woman.
"You boil this, right?"
"No!" Temeki said, disgusted. She automatically took the butter from the man and shoved him away from the refrigerator with her hip. "Go sit at that table and don't touch any food that isn't a fruit. I'll cook. You talk."
She looked at the food and sighed. Nothing she could really cook was in there. Thinking that she'd have better luck with the freezer, Temeki noticed a few aluminum pans that were covered in cheesecloth and smiled when she found a pan of uncooked lasagna and a small casserole. She picked the pans up and placed them on the island in front of the stove.
"Well?" she asked as she looked over the chrome and wooden monstrosity that was Kisame's oven.
"Well, what?" Itachi smirked as he peeled an orange.
"You know who my father was," she said, turning the dial to preheat the oven.
"Yes," he answered simply. "I want a smoothie."
"Touch the blender and die," a voice growled from the doorway.
Temeki turned and saw a bare-chested Kisame standing there. His arm was still in the sling, but his gaze was laser sharp as it cut towards the Uchiha.
"I'll do it," she said, grabbing the orange from Itachi. She took a few more as well as the necessary ingredients from the refrigerator. When the timer for the oven dinged, she competently placed the two pans in and set the timer for twenty minutes.
"You might want to change it to thirty and adjust the temperature," Kisame grunted. "They've been frozen for a while."
She nodded and adjusted the setting. "Do you want a smoothie, too, Kisame-sama?" she asked.
"Strawberry-banana for me, Temeki-sama," he answered. The two Akatsuki members noticed that the woman's head snapped up at the title and that she blushed a bit.
"You don't have to call me that," she said. "I'm no lady and I'm not of noble blood."
"Yes you are," Itachi corrected. She stared at him and blinked when light reflected off of his glasses. Although she hated the man with every fiber of her being, Temeki couldn't help but laugh a bit at the sight of him with glasses perched on his nose.
"What?" he asked.
Kisame smirked and picked up a small basket of strawberries. He stood next to Temeki at the island and placed two blenders next to each other. Their hips bumped together and the shark-like man had to stifle a groan at the feminine feel of Temeki.
Down boy, he scolded himself.
"She's laughing at your glasses," he said distracting himself from the female who had invaded their home. "Don't you want a smoothie?"
Temeki nodded. "Just add extra to yours, Kisame-sama," she said, not looking up from her work on Itachi's smoothie. "I like strawberries."
I wonder if she tastes like strawberries, Kisame thought.
"What do you mean that I have noble blood, Itachi-sama?" she asked as she checked on the casserole. Since it was smaller than the lasagna, it would cook faster.
"You might as well call me Itachi-niisan, Temeki-chan," Itachi said. He was about to stand and watch the contents of the blenders swirl around, but a growl from Kisame kept him in his seat. "Your father was a cousin of mine."
"So I am an Uchiha?" she asked, shock covered her features.
"Yeah," he answered. "Your father was Uchiha Obito. I don't know how, because he was supposed to have died when he was a teenager."
"Really?" she asked, placing a tall glass in front of Itachi.
The man frowned at the drink until Kisame sighed and placed a strange crazy straw into the glass. A tiny, chibi version of Itachi hung onto the straw's side—red eyes and all. Itachi's face literally glowed as he sipped the smoothie through the loops of the crazy straw.
Temeki looked at Kisame and raised her eyebrow as if to ask, "Is this really the cold blooded killer, Itachi?"
Kisame just nodded and placed another glass in front of her. They were silent for a while, except for Itachi's slurps of his drink. Kisame stood and took the casserole out of the oven, placed it on a cooling tray, and sat down in his seat.
"Now that I think of it though—how the hell did that get there?" Itachi said, wiping orange smoothie off of his chin and forehead. "Anyway, the Clan never had a funeral for Obito-san. The hospital said that the accident along with the surgery made it impossible to have one. I didn't understand it at the time. I mean—he'd be in the casket. We didn't have to see him."
Kisame noticed a bit of strawberry smoothie on her lip and absently wiped it off with his finger. Temeki stilled and fought her revulsion.
He's a slimy shark, she told herself. But I have to do this. Be nice!
Itachi noticed the blush on Temeki's cheeks and felt the unease radiating off of the girl. He smirked and bit back a sarcastic remark. Although he said that a person couldn't be evil all of the time, it didn't mean that he wasn't evil most of the time.
Be nice! Itachi warned himself. If I'm going to use her, she needs to trust me.
Kisame just stared at the woman's lips and sucked the strawberry concoction off of his finger.
God I'm horny…he thought.
"Surgery?" she asked.
"You know that Hatake Kakashi has the Sharingan as well, right?" Itachi asked. When she nodded, he continued. "The accident that killed Obito-san also caused Hatake to lose his eye. The surgeons at the hospital replaced his eye with Obito-san's." (2)
"But my father died ten years ago. When I was ten," Temeki said. "Sakura-chan said that Kakashi-san had his Sharingan for longer than that."
"That's why it's so strange," Itachi said, finishing his drink. "But there's no other explanation. Your father had only one eye; Obito-san gave his eye to Hatake. There's no other way for you to have the Sharingan except surgery and you don't have any scars around your eyes. And now that I think about it, you kind of look like Obito-san's mother. The only thing that doesn't make you look like a total Uchiha is your eye color."
"What's wrong with my eyes?" Temeki asked, her feminine pride hurt.
"Nothing!" Kisame yelled. When the other two simply stared at him, he blushed a bit and looked down at the table. "They're very pretty."
Temeki froze…Kisame was flirting with her?
Use him! A low voice commanded in her head. Remember what you have to do and use him!
Everyone was silent until Itachi stood up and walked over to place his glass in the sink. On the way back, his cloak brushed against one of the blenders and the machine exploded. Kisame pushed Temeki down onto the floor and turned the table over them. He protected her by covering her body with his own as pieces of metal flew around the room.
When everything settled down, Kisame and Temeki looked cautiously over the top of the overturned table. Itachi was pressed against the wall, his arms and legs in weird angles. His eyes were wide behind the lenses of his glasses and sharp pieces of the blender's blades pinned his cloak to the wall.
Temeki let loose a howl of laughter and smiled at Kisame. The man was stunned by the smile and laughed himself.
"It's not funny!" Itachi yelled over the laughter. They looked at him again and just laughed harder.
"Machines don't like Itachi-sama," Kisame explained.
"I can see that," Temeki answered.
"I told you that it's not funny!" Itachi said again as he tried to unpin himself. Kisame just shook his head and unbuttoned the other man's cloak. Itachi immediately pulled free of the fabric and slipped on a piece of plastic that used to be the blender's base.
When he fell on his ass, a strange sound came from his lips.
Temeki pointed at the man and laughed harder. "You SQUAWKED!" she roared. "Like a big, old chicken!"
Kisame laughed too and finally Itachi joined in, although his ass hurt like hell.
Temeki was seeing an entirely new side of the two Akatsuki members. She just hoped that she didn't get too attached to them.
It would only make killing them that much harder.
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After dinner, they sat in the living room, staring at the fire in the fireplace.
"I have to get back," Temeki said, breaking the silence. "Temari and Shikamaru are going back to Suna soon. I have been ordered to return with them." Disgust and discontent rang through her voice.
"Why are you angry?" Kisame asked. "I thought that you would be happy to return to Suna."
"It's because of your fight with Kina, right?" Itachi said, glasses still in place. At Kisame's confused look, he continued. "You weren't around to hear about it, I guess. But it seems that Temeki-chan and Kina had some sort of argument that led to Temeki-chan leaving Suna."
"Forced to leave is more like it," she muttered.
"What did you argue about?" Itachi asked.
"I confronted her about the Sharingan," Temeki admitted. "She claimed to know nothing about it, but I could tell that she and Gaara knew something. You know that I'm not really related to her at all, right?"
"That's common knowledge," the shark-like man commented.
"How did you become the foster sister of the Kazekage's wife?" Itachi wondered.
A small smile graced Temeki's features. "That's something that no one ever thinks to ask," she said. "Kina just claimed me as her sister and everyone accepted it. No questions, no comments, no worries."
"You resented her for that," the elder Uchiha noted. "The power she has to make people accept whatever she says."
"She can make anyone do anything," she laughed without joy. "She could make a man stab his own wife and be glad to do so."
"You've seen this happen?" Kisame asked, shocked. Sabaku no Kinabuhi was known throughout the Hidden Villages as one of the most peaceful kunoichis that existed, right next to Hyuuga Hinata. No one had ever really seen her fight and no one outside of Suna knew that she had a temper.
"Kina's dark side is worse than Gaara's," she answered. She stared into the flames and remembered a hundred different instances of Kina's ruthless behavior. "She only lets it out during missions, though. She's got this side to her that she doesn't show anyone."
"It's violent…almost demonic?"
She turned towards Itachi and frowned. "Yeah," she said. "But if you're thinking to shock me, don't. I already know about Kina's demon. I was there when she first turned into her half-demon form."
"Really?"
"Naruto was hurt because Kina was Gaara's wife. They wanted Gaara, but hurt Naruto," pain echoed in the woman's voice and her fists clenched. "And all she wanted to do was be with Shukaku. He was hurt and she didn't even care."
"Enough about that brat," Kisame said. He was smart enough to know that Temeki had deep feelings for the kyuubi vessel, but stupid enough to think that he had a chance with the Suna kunoichi. "How did you become Kina's foster sister?"
"I told you that I don't remember much past waking up on the border between Fire and Wind…but that's not exactly true. I remember my dad and learning to fight. But there's a whole space of time that's missing—parts are just blank."
Someone's messed with her memories, Itachi realized. (3)
"When I found out I had the Sharingan, I researched about it. I even asked Naruto," she picked up her hunter mask and sighed. "Kina noticed and asked me why I was researching."
"You don't live with someone for six years and not notice when they're not telling the whole truth. Even if the person is a ninja," she said. Temeki stood up and walked over to the sketch of Gaara. "Kina has a habit of scratching her shoulder when she's hiding something or nervous for some reason."
"When I asked her about the time when she saved me, she said something about her and Gaara finding me in a trader's tent about to be sold as a slave. But all I can clearly remember is being on a horse heading for Konoha," she traced the young Gaara's black lined eyes and sighed.
"That was when Gaara introduced Kina as his wife during the Summer Festival," she finished.
"So you don't remember anything from before that?" Kisame asked.
"Nothing specific," was the answer.
"What prompted your argument with Kina?" Itachi questioned.
"I overheard something…" she looked hesitantly back at Itachi and wondered how he would react to her news. "Something about Uchiha Sasuke."
Itachi managed to keep his body from jerking at her statement and angled his glasses so that they would only reflect the flames of the fire.
"Hn…"
"She knows where he is," Temeki said. "She's always known. Something about her powers lets her know his location anywhere on the continent. Naruto and Sakura never stopped looking for him…and Kina knew where he was."
She turned back to the picture of Gaara and punched the wall next to it. Thin lines appeared on the plaster around her fist and she stared at her abused knuckles.
"Naruto suffered again because of her," she whispered. "I confronted her and Gaara about it and about the Sharingan. She let it slip that she knew who my father was…who my family was. She knew!"
When she turned to the two sitting on the couch, hate, rage, and pain radiated off of her. "Do you have any idea how it feels to have the person you thought of as your sibling totally betray you like that?" she asked.
"She knew that I could only do so much with my Sharingan without someone to teach me, to guide me, to show me how to use it! Kakashi was out of the question because he couldn't know about me. She said that Sasuke was too deranged; power-mad and so hell bent on killing you that he wouldn't help me. The only thing left for me was to look for you!"
"She forbid it," Itachi concluded.
"She forbid it," she spat out. "When I refused, Gaara threatened to make me a missing nin. Kina started yelling and so did I. The next thing I know, I'm being blasted through the door with a chakra beam."
"They must have placed guards on you to make sure you didn't go looking for me."
She smiled and shook her head. "Kina and Gaara know that I would just kill them. Suna isn't so powerful yet that it can afford to loose good shinobi. The Kazekage simply solved that problem by giving me mission after mission."
"As Zannen," Kisame said.
"That mission he gave me and Aitou to capture anyone in that safe house was the biggest piece of luck I've ever had," she laughed.
"Why did you take so long to free me then?" the shark-like man grunted.
"Would you have let me go with you if you hadn't been so desperate?"
He could only shake his head at her assessment. "No, I wouldn't have."
The dark haired woman turned to her newly found cousin and glared at him. "Teach me," she demanded. There was no pleading in her voice, only determination. "Teach me the secrets of the Sharingan."
Itachi was silent for a few more moments. He then stood up and looked at the sketches on the wall. He stared the longest at the one of himself and his younger brother. Temeki was about to say something to persuade him—she would never beg the Uchiha—when he spoke softly.
"And what will you do with its power if I teach you?"
"I'll make my dear sibling pay," she said without hesitation.
"You may not have known this, but Akatsuki needs your foster sister," he replied.
A sly smile ghosted over her features. "Do you need her or her demon?"
Itachi turned to the woman and an identical smile graced his lips. "You are a smart one, Temeki."
"If you teach me, then I'll give her to you," she bargained. "Once you've done what you need to do to the demon inside her, I want her."
"If she survives the process, then she's yours," the dark-haired man agreed.
"Itachi-sama," Kisame whispered. "Shouldn't you talk to him before you promise that?"
"He only wants the demon's chakra," Itachi answered. He looked into Temeki's eyes as he said this, but noticed that there was no surprise in the ice blue orbs—only confirmation of facts that she already knew.
"She might not survive," the shark-like man repeated.
"I don't care," Temeki coldly stated. "Even if she's dead I can make Suna suffer—I can make the Sabaku Clan suffer. Just give me her body."
"You need to deliver her to us first."
"No," she told Itachi. "You need to teach me first. Everything you know."
"I can teach you everything I know but that doesn't mean that you'll be able to use it," he chuckled.
"Teach me anyway," she insisted.
"It's a long and difficult process," he said. "Obtaining the full power of the Sharingan isn't easy."
"Obtaining anything of worth is never easy," Temeki replied, smiling up into the Uchiha's dark eyes. She absently tapped her finger against the glass covering the sketch of the two brothers. "That's something Sasuke could never understand. If he wanted something, then he wanted it now. It was his quest for the easy route to power that led him to Orochimaru in the first place."
"Can you look into my brother's mind so clearly then?" Itachi asked, amused and intrigued. He didn't notice that Temeki spoke in the past tense when discussing his brother.
She shrugged and looked at the dark, angry eyes of the sketched Sasuke. "It's not that hard to see. From what everyone's told me about Uchiha the younger, he's not as complex as everyone thinks he is. He sees you as a challenge he has to overcome. But since he's set the bar so high, he doesn't see his accomplishments for what they are."
"The kyuubi brat's methods are better than my brother's," Itachi agreed. He nodded at the sketch of Sasuke standing over the wounded blonde. "One justu at a time, small pushes…he gathers strength to his legs before he makes a huge leap. Sasuke just assumes that he'll land on the other side without preparing beforehand."
"Huh?" Kisame asked, not understanding the metaphor.
"The walls Naruto places in front of himself aren't any weaker or thinner than the wall Sasuke placed in front of himself," Temeki said. "They're just closer to the ground than your brother's."
"So I'm a wall now?"
"You'll always be a wall that he has to overcome," she whispered. Itachi's eyes narrowed at the statement. He'd told Sasuke something similar the day before the massacre.
He relaxed when she added, "That's what Naruto told me."
"What the fuck are you guys talking about?" Kisame asked.
The two stared at him and the shark-like man was forced to endure the blank glares of two Uchihas. Ice blue and fathomless black pinned him to his seat and had him questioning his sanity in opening his mouth around the two.
"Will you teach me or not?" Temeki demanded, never taking her icy gaze from Kisame. The man was practically squirming in his seat and she found it all very amusing.
"Yes," Itachi answered. He kept his gaze on his partner and felt a similar amusement course through his veins. He'd almost forgotten how fun it was to make the other man uncomfortable. He broke the contact and looked down at his younger cousin.
"You have two months to learn everything I have to teach you."
"Why two months?" she asked.
"Because that's how long we have before Kinabuhi gives birth to her children. We cannot use her until the brats are free of her body and her chakra levels are normal again."
Temeki nodded. "I have to return to Suna—"
"No."
"But…"
"You will remain here until I feel you are ready," Itachi said.
They both knew what he really meant was: "You're a prisoner until I can trust you."
"They'll suspect something," she protested.
"I'm sure that you'll think of a suitable excuse," he replied.
"Where will I sleep?"
Kisame brightened up and said, "You can stay with me, Temeki-sama."
Itachi noticed her delicate shudder and smirked. He walked over to a third door that she hadn't noticed by the framed sketches. He opened the door and waved the woman in.
"You will stay here," he said. "Goodnight."
"Goodnight," Temeki echoed. The door shut and she fell onto the soft bed. The room was the same size as Kisame's. It had enough space for the bed, a dresser and mirror, and a short wardrobe. She walked over to another door and found a small bathroom. She sighed with relief when she saw the shower in the corner.
I'm so glad that I don't have to share a bathroom with them, she thought.
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"Well?" Kisame asked, looking up from the glass of wine he was holding.
"She'll do," Itachi answered before entering his own room.
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Three masked figures gathered in a darkened room.
The younger male stood before a large scroll. His eyes moved quickly as he memorized the jutsu in front of him. He'd read it before, of course, and practiced it, but it never hurt to look at the actual text once more. He knew the jutsu was dangerous, but he was determined to master the technique. It wasn't necessary for the mission, but it certainly would help.
The only female present sat on the floor and meditated. Out of everyone in the select group, she had the least amount of chakra in reserve. That didn't mean that her chakra was on the meager side, but compared to her counterparts, she was sorely lacking in the department. She knew that she needed to increase her reserves by at least one-fourth. She was confident that she could at least manage that feat before she was needed.
The eldest of the group sat at a small table with his hands hovering over a clear orb. Images flickered within the crystal and sounds echoed through his mind. His plans were coming along. The pieces were almost all in place. Soon the trap would spring.
Seals covered three of the four walls and most of the floor. The wall where the younger man was studying was covered with shelves that held books, maps, and scrolls. Weapons of all shapes and sizes hung on the wall opposite that one.
The third wall had a series of seals written in the blood of everyone allowed into their little hideout. The curving script crept up the wall in an elegant archway. On either side of the arch, burned into the wooden wall, were the symbols of each of the five major Hidden Villages (along with a few of the more minor ones—such as the Hidden Village of the Star).
The fourth wall had a large map on it. The map was that of their continent. It showed the different countries and locations of every Hidden Village, major or not. The map was marked with strange characters that only a select few could read.
When the space within the archway began to glow a soft lavender color, only the eldest of the trio looked up from his work. The other two were so intent on their own pursuits that they didn't do more than grunt greetings to the leader of their team.
The woman stared at her subordinates and sighed. She walked to the map and wrote a few more characters onto it. She stared at the words she wrote through the slits in her mask and waited until she felt her three teammates behind her.
"Soon," she answered their silent question.
"When?" the younger man asked, impatient.
"The darkness must envelope and tempt him first," the eldest reminded the others.
"Is that wise?" the girl asked.
"No," was the answer. "But it's necessary."
"And if madness blurs his priorities?"
"Better he die in battle than in shame," the leader whispered.
The others nodded and returned to their individual tasks.
The young man stood in front of the scroll once more and ran through a series of seals quickly and competently. In the next moment, he was on the other side of the room. He had a brief moment of elation before he fell to the ground, exhausted.
"Guess I still need to practice that," he said.
The girl walked to her comrade and placed a glowing hand on his head. They both smiled at each other, even though their masks hid their smiles.
"Keep trying," she whispered and returned to her meditation.
The other woman shrugged her shoulders and removed a large sketchbook from the bookcase. Taking a pack of drawing pencils, she sat down and began to draw with short, competent strokes.
After an hour of complete silence, the eldest placed the orb in its chest and walked over to the archway. He used his kunai to slash his palm and pressed his bloody hand to one of the symbols burned into the wall. The archway glowed with a soft golden color and the man turned to his leader.
"Don't remain here too long," he told the others. "We can't afford to be missed."
The girl simply nodded from her position on the floor. The younger man just waved his hand distractedly as he read from another smaller scroll. The woman kept on drawing. When the man left, she let out a sigh and looked down at her sketch.
Two twenty-year-olds, a man and a woman, stood back to back, both staring in opposite directions.
The man had black hair that was long in the front, but spiked up in the back. He had a black shirt with a large collar that bared part of one shoulder. His face was turned so that both of his obsidian eyes were visible. His lips were drawn in a small frown, but there was a hint of a smirk in the slight tilt of one corner of his mouth.
A forehead protector with the symbol for the Hidden Village of Konoha rested on his brow. The leaf symbol had a dark line slashed through it.
The woman had long black hair that was caught up in a high ponytail. Where the man wore black, she wore a white backless dress. Like the man, her face was tilted so that both of her ice-blue eyes were seen. The smirk that was hinted at on the man's face was in full bloom on the woman's. In fact, the curl of her lip suggested that she was one second away from a full-blown smile.
A forehead protector with the symbol for the Hidden Village of Suna hung around the woman's waist and was tilted at a striking angle. The sand symbol had a dark line slashed through it, as well.
Two large glowing red eyes appeared in the sky above the couple. Two dark lines slashed across the page below the eyes and held the two figures underneath them. The metal plate of a Konoha protector held its place at the top of the picture. The slash across the symbol was the darkest line in the whole picture.
The red eyes looked down at the man and woman with contempt. Unlike normal eyes, these eyes had large dark three pointed Shuriken-like pupils that practically filled the entire iris. (4)
The woman stared at the scene she had drawn and almost choked. She shook her head and signed her name in the bottom right hand corner. The characters she used weren't kanji or even the strange ones she'd used to mark their map.
No…
These characters belonged to a country and a time she'd almost forgotten existed.
They belonged to a home she'd almost forgotten.
She slammed the sketchbook shut with more force than necessary and stared at the two still in the room.
"He's right," she said abruptly. "Time's up. We have to go."
The two nodded and walked through the archway after placing their bloodied palms on their respective symbols. Red light flashed through the room followed by soft green and then they were gone.
She hesitated for a moment before she took the sketchbook and placed her hand on her own destination. When the lavender light pulsed once, she walked through the archway.
Once the transportation jutsu was complete, she took the mask off of her face and sighed.
I'll show the sketch to him, she decided as she strode through the dark, dank basement of her home. Maybe he can interpret it for me.
She quickly placed her mask into one of the many cubbyholes along the stone walls of the basement. At the bottom of the stairs, she placed her hand at the small of her back and, making sure she placed most of her weight on the heels of her feet, slowly made her way to the top of the stairs.
When she entered the hallway, she immediately bumped into someone.
"Have you seen the Kazekage?" she asked.
The maid bowed slightly and answered.
"He's been in his office for the past three hours. He ordered that no one disturb him."
She was already heading in that direction. "Thank you!" she yelled.
"You're welcome, Kinabuhi-sama," came the answer.
A/N:
Okay, yeah this one was lllooooonnnngggg! This chapter was a bitch to write. I scrapped at least 75 percent of what I originally planned for the Temeki and Itachi scene.
I almost deleted the scene in the kitchen…making those two appealing makes me hesitate to kill them, but it must be done! (I think…) But I couldn't think of another way for Itachi to tell Temeki who he believes her "father" is. And the rest was pretty serious as it was.
Firm believer in the balance of funny and serious…right here/points to self/
Well, later!
(1) I've seen pictures like the ones I described. They're not of any one particular picture. I'm sure everyone's seen at least a few like the ones I wrote about.
(2) I don't really know how everything happened. I'm just guessing from different things I've heard and read.
(3) Much like how Anko has parts of her past missing.
(4) The picture I just described doesn't exist…I just made it up, 'cuz it fit the story. But if someone with way more talent in drawing than I do wants to draw it, go ahead. Just send me a link of the final product, 'kay?