Chapter 5: The End of Solitude

Perhaps two is better than one.

The quote that inspired Sakura's second question: "What would you do if you woke up next to Mr. Moon naked?"

Uchiha Itachi

The rain was falling again.

According to the annoying one, it was rainy season. It was only afterwards I remembered that she was right, I had memorized weather patterns in most places; seeing as the weather would obviously interfere with my fighting. In Akatsuki, you always had to be two steps ahead.

"Oh yeah? Then why are you stuck here if you're 'two steps ahead'?" An inner voice, nearly as annoying as Sakura jeered at me and I chose to ignore it than waste my time on such stupidity like arguing with myself.

The silence of the room bothered me and although the rain did much to soothe that annoyance, I couldn't help but feel as if it were too quiet. For a brief moment, I wondered if I should wake up Sakura but banished that thought in the next second. Still…I found it very strange. In Akatsuki, I had craved quiet and solitude but now…I wanted some form of noise. It was laughable, really.

I pulled in frustration on my beaded necklace, thoroughly annoyed with my strange wish. When I thought I heard the necklace snap, I looked down sharply and was relieved to find that it wasn't broken. It was far too…too important for me to break.

I stared out of the window and for a fleeting moment, I thought of throwing myself out of the window just to see what it would feel like to die. I rid myself of that stupid wish, I had far too much to accomplish before I died.

I had to break free of this prison and then return to Akatsuki. When I returned to Akatsuki, I would then be given another mission undoubtedly, and then I wouldn't have any free leave for a year or so. I would continue to go on mission after mission and eventually…die.

"Well, Shisui, what do you think about all of this?" I murmured quietly, looking out of the window and waiting, as if the pouring rain would somehow give me an answer.

When no reply came, I sighed inwardly and closed my tired eyes. I made a note to myself and realized that the rain made me sentimental; a dangerous feeling indeed in my line of work.

Many years ago, when I was still a twelve year old citizen of Konoha and Shisui had been alive, a small, newly opened ramen shop named Ichiraku had opened and had thus become our 'hangout'. Although Shisui was a lively and energetic person, he too enjoyed the quiet and less crowded places.

The both of us sat on the high backed, squeaky wooden chairs, waiting for our ramen to come. Shisui had always said that the ramen in Ichiraku was the best and I was inclined to agree. We had just come back from a particularly stressful ANBU mission and the both of us were silent, seeing as our mission had been more emotionally challenging than physically challenging.

Of course, you could always count on sarcastic Shisui to break the silence, eventually. Only, this time I found that he didn't seem quite altogether and I doubted that he would ever shatter the ice.

"Do you know who reported to Hokage-sama?" I asked him quietly and he nodded his head of long shaggy black hair slowly.

"I think-" He began in a hoarse voice but then stopped to clear his throat. I could see his usually sparkling eyes were glazed over with unshed tears and see him try to swallow down a lump in his throat.

"I think Genma-san went," He repeated in a stronger, if not shaky, voice. I nodded and the tentative silence raised its ugly head once again.

A man in his late thirties, the owner of Ichiraku, walked over to us and put two steaming bowls of ramen in front of us. I waited for Shisui to take a pair of chopsticks and methodically snap them before murmuring a rushed 'Itadikimasu!'. I would stare at him in disgust as he shovelled down the ramen and he would eventually end up having to run to the bathroom. But, when he didn't pick the bamboo chopsticks up at all, I was a bit surprised.

"Shisui," I called his name flatly, to check if he was listening to me, and he looked at me from the corner of his dark brown eyes. His shaggy, messy hair fell in a long brown curtain, hiding his face from me.

"We were following orders," I continued bluntly.

Shisui was uncharacteristically quiet and his silence was beginning to get on my nerves. He wasn't replying at all to my words and the tension hung in the air, like a thick fog. In the end, I decided it was best to leave him to brood to himself and wait for the food to come. I wondered if he would stay quiet a long time; it wasn't that I enjoyed talking to him, his voice just seemed to fill the ever present space.

"...why?" He asked me at last, in a quiet undertone.

I pulled out a pair of wooden, disposable chopsticks from their blue and white porcelain cup and snapped them. I looked at him and questioned in a flat tone, "Why what?"

"Why…why didn't we stop it?" Shisui repeated brokenly and I almost raised an eyebrow at his question.

His question came as a sort of surprise. I had never once thought that we should have stopped it; orders were orders.

Finally, I answered, "There was no need to."

Shisui's head snapped up and he shot me a glare which would have made hell itself freeze over. He hissed at me, "You're telling me there was no need to stop the massacre of an entire village?"

I raised an eyebrow and retorted coolly, "The Dragonfly country posed a threat to us."

Shisui let out a loud, harsh laugh. Suddenly, his entire demeanour changed and he snapped sharply, "They never attacked us! We killed them simply because they got in the way and because we were ordered to."

"In the long run they would eventually attack us and kill whoever they got their hands on, even our civilians. We have been formed to protect Konoha at all costs, not to protect anyone else," I told him calmly and he leaned back in his squeaky chair, staring with a set jaw up at the green and white marquee ceiling.

I could see he was fighting an inner battle with himself and made no move to help him. This was something he obviously had to get through alone.

"So…we have to protect Konoha, even at the cost of our own sanity?" He whispered brokenly.

The rain didn't come in a steady drizzle as it normally did, it just suddenly began to beat down torrentially upon the green and white striped marquee that covered us from the elements. I picked up my chopsticks again and ignored the sound of the falling rain, leaving Shisui's question unanswered.

"Uchiha-kun?" The sound of Sakura's voice brought me back to my senses and I turned my head to look at her.

She had a look of concern painted onto her face and I wondered how much more stupid the girl could get. She shouldn't have been worried for her enemies; she seemed the type who would actually heal her enemies and eventually get killed as a result of her 'good' deeds. It was amazing that she wasn't dead already; in a ninja's world open displays of compassion were perhaps one of the most life threatening things there were.

"What are you thinking about?" She asked me boldly and I remained silent, thinking about whether or not I should answer her question.

I turned my head back to the window and ignored her, pretending I had never heard her question. She sighed in exasperation and she too turned back to her own work, huddled over the writing desk.

Naruto

Kisame must have been obsessed with the rain or something. It wasn't surprising, he was a sad nasty little fishy thing as it was so…

"Hey, hey, Kisame, you know that I'm leaving soon?" I told him excitedly.

If Kisame had eyebrows, I imagined he would have raised them by now. Of course, being a fishy whatever he was, he didn't have eyebrows and he couldn't smell things either which came as sort of a relief because my room didn't exactly smell like a walk in a park.

"Oh?" He looked slightly interested and I nodded vigorously, a big, impish grin on my face.

"Yeah, and that means that I don't have to see you anymore!" I announced loudly.

He shrugged and looked out of the window, a faraway expression on his features. I realized that he wasn't in the mood for an argument and slipped into silence, watching the rain fall beyond his tall figure.

"Have you been told when my execution is?" He asked me suddenly and my expression darkened considerably.

"No. Old hag Tsunade hasn't told us yet," I murmured quietly.

It was odd. Whenever either of us mentioned the execution, we both fell dead silent. The entire mood of the room would change and neither of us would speak to one another, too wrapped up in our own thoughts.

"Do you have anyone who'll come to your execution?" I asked him curiously and the faintest hint of a smile graced his rough face.

"Nope," He replied and my brow furrowed.

"How can you not have anyone who will come? I mean…somebody's got to, right? Everyone's got somebody who cares about them," I reasoned with him and he glanced down at his sharp knees for a moment before raising his pale, scaly head.

"There was someone once but…we stopped talking," He explained indifferently.

…They just stopped talking? What the hell?!

"You can't be serious," I said in a shocked tone.

How could you stop being someone's special person? It wasn't something you just chose to stop; it was something that could never change. I was reminded of a young boy many years back from the Wave Country who died protecting his precious person and felt my unspoken protest bubble up inside of me. Before I could yell at Kisame, he answered quickly.

"I am," He replied in a dead tone.

"What happened?" I demanded angrily and he shrugged.

"She got married to someone else," He told me blatantly with the air of a person who was stating something none too important; like there wasn't much milk left in the milk carton or something like that.

"She got married to someone else?! But, but, if she's your precious person then…she's a real bitch!" I protested loudly and he shot me a quick stern glance.

"It was my choice. I left her," He defended this woman who had yet to be named. My cerulean eyes widened in shock and I gaped at him.

It was as if the metaphorical milk in the milk carton had suddenly gone sour and he was berating me for having drunken it. He was acting as if none of this was a big deal but…!

"Why the hell would you do that?" I demanded furiously and instantly, his long moment of vulnerability disappeared.

"Like I'd tell you, blondie," He snapped at me and I got to my feet suddenly, ready to beat anyone up, a certain fish face in particular.

"What did you say?!" I yelled at Kisame angrily who grinned at me, baring his razor sharp teeth.

His gills flapped slightly as I began to let out a long stream of curses that would have made even Tsunade-sama's ears bleed and he stood up, firing off a string of equally as crude curses. Our previous conversation was forgotten but I couldn't help but notice the melancholy look in his onyx eyes.

Sakura

The fear of Sasuke meeting Itachi again had all but disappeared; Sasuke had somehow managed to disappear from the base and he had been replaced with Hinata. Every now and again I would catch a glimpse of him through a crack in a shojo screen but I hadn't talked to him for a while.

I was kind of glad that Itachi was there, as weird as it sounded. Yeah, let's hang out with a mass killer for fun, why not? I guess it was just because I hated being alone but it went a bit further than that…Itachi was…he was…

Staring at the black haired Sharingan Master unashamedly, I found that I had absolutely no idea what he was to me. I knew I was treading in dangerous water by simply speaking to him much more than I had to but…well, being stuck with a man for over two months did that to you.

"Hey, you want to play a game?" I asked Itachi hopefully.

He looked at me with an expression that clearly read, 'what do you take me for, a three year old?' and he turned back to the open window. I sighed and pulled up the chair from the writing desk so that I was sitting far enough for neither of us to get too uncomfortable but close enough that he had to notice me.

"It's called the Random Question Game," I began to explain, "we both go in turns. We have to ask each other questions and then the other person has to answer truthfully. You can pass your turn if you don't have a question, but we can't tell anyone about what we talk about in here."

Itachi made no move to show that he had acknowledged me but I knew he was listening, he always was. It was too much to hope for that he would start off the game so I knew that I would have to.

"What's your favourite colour?" I started the game and he remained silent for a while. I doubted he would ever answer.

"There is no need for me to answer a question like that," He finally replied and I huffed at him, he was annoying!

"Fine then, it's not like you can come up with a better question," I taunted him and he continued staring out of the window. I doubted he would rise to the bait but just maybe he was thinking of a question…

I didn't have to wait long afterwards to find out what he was thinking.

And then he said bluntly, "I pass."

Men these days had no sense of fun! Honestly!

"Fine then, I'll just go again," I grumbled and began to mutter darkly about sadistic men who had no optimistic side to them.

"So…uhm…" I began to fumble for a question and then my jade green eyes lightened up considerably when I came up with the perfect idea.

"What would you do if you woke up next to Kisame naked?" I inwardly complimented myself on having found such an embarrassing question to humiliate Itachi with.

Itachi shot me a sharp look and refused to answer. "I will not answer questions that have blackmail potential."

"Urgh, you're not going to answer anything! It's your go," I threw my hands up in the air, a sign of defeat.

"I pass," He murmured and I stood up suddenly, pointing an accusing finger at him.

"You can't do that! No passes twice in a row!" I gleefully explained to him and his eyes narrowed for the briefest of moments before he turned back to the open window.

"…Do you have a boyfriend?" He asked me suddenly.

Talk about random.

"Nope. Why, you interested?" I winked at him and he kept his eyes transfixed on the pouring rain.

"I was merely thinking of giving the man my sincerest apologies," He retorted smoothly and I gasped indignantly, struggling to find a comeback to strike him down with.

"Fine! It's my turn! Do you have a girlfriend, Itachi-san?" I finally decided to turn his own question on him and he raised an elegant eyebrow at me, making the answer more than obvious. The pinkish scars on his face strained his skin with the slight motion and I turned my eyes away from them; feeling as if I had just taken a peek at him changing or something to that extent.

"You're such a boring person, honestly. It's your turn again," I grumbled and crossed my legs and arms, leaning back in my chair to soothe my aching back.

"I pass," He said flatly and I groaned. He was obviously milking the passes for all they were worth.

"Fine…do you have anyone you like?" I rephrased my previous question.

Itachi's eyes flickered to mine for the quickest of moments and his fists tightened slightly. I wondered if I had breached upon a forbidden subject and his body finally relaxed. He told me, "I do not."

"I didn't think so…anyways, it's your turn again," I pressed him to continue the pointless game.

Itachi thought for a long time before he finally asked me a question.

"You have to buy a drink from a vending machine and there are two vending machines near you. One vending machine sells cheaper drink cartons and the other sells expensive aluminium canned drinks but all the drinks are the same despite the fact that they're in different packaging. Which vending machine do you buy drinks from?" He asked me, turning his head of midnight hair to look at me.

His face was utterly emotionless and piercing and there wasn't a single hint of a smile. I realized he was being absolutely serious about the question and I was lost for words.

I then burst out laughing.

Preview for next chapter: No More Attempts

"I don't like him! Who would like him anyways, he's a jerk, way too prideful, stupid, arrogant, has no sense of common courtesy and…"

"You had no right to kill those men!"

"It's weird how optimistic you are, blondie. It's even weirder how much you care."

"Itachi…you're just a child…"

A/N:

Hey! Lol, so you guys are smarter than I thought. I didn't think you'd figure out the whole eye business with Sasuke. I can proudly say I have written 92 pages worth of Defining Evil and I've just started making the story gradually more and more depressing. I love the flashbacks with Itachi, Shisui and Ayame because it's just so cool to mess around with them. Shisui's a bit of an OC for me because Masashi Kishimoto never really went in depth with him...

OH OH OH I will now tell you the similarities between Sesshomaru and Itachi.

1. They both think they're so much better than everyone and have perfect reason to.
2. They both fight like A WHOA.
3. They both have younger brothers who hate them like wow.
4. They both tried to get something important (Mangekyou Sharingan/Tetsusaiga)
5. They both have a total disregard for human life (Uchiha Massacre/Sesshomaru being Sesshomaru)
6. They're both the first born son of an influential family (Lord Sesshomaru of the West/Uchiha Itachi)
7. They seem to be complete loners except for an ugly little pet. (Jaken/Kisame)
8. They both think their younger brother is stupid. ('Foolish little brother...' / 'Filthy half breed.')
9. They are completely and utterly emotionless.
10. They wear big billowy clothes.
11. It is likely that the both of them are gay. (hey, think about it. Sesshomaru's never hit on Rin and Itachi's always hanging around with Kisame)
12. They both suddenly disappeared from their younger brother's life for a long period of time.
13. They both have sexy eyes.
14. They both have markings of a sort on their face.

See look, 14 things. That's freaking scary man.

BUT SESSHOMARU CAME FIRST. So waha. But I still love Itachi so awwwwwwww

Selandora (the sickeningly emotional undeniably sexy one you must fear)