Part 2: The Spring of the Fifth Year of the Godaime's Reign

Haruno Sakura

"Are you finished packing, Sakura-chan?" Naruto's loud boisterous voice was slightly muffled by the rice paper door.

I sighed, staring down at the half empty dark green bag. I dragged myself over to the chest of white drawers and pulled them open one by one, checking if I had forgotten anything.

I decided to leave the radio there, like I did every time, but I knew that this would be the last time anyone ever saw this place again. Even though I knew that though, it felt like I was just going to come here tomorrow and it would be exactly the same. Of course, now that the Village of Sound had found it obviously never could. I picked up the two weapon pouches on the writing desk and strapped them around my thigh and upper arm; the reassuring weight was comforting.

I no longer wore the restrainer; Kakashi wore it now. It was decided that he was much stronger than me and with the most experience when it came to escorting S Class criminals. Itachi wasn't allowed to come anywhere near me after the ambush incident. I wasn't afraid to admit that I missed his silent and prideful presence. I drew the drawstrings of the duffel bag and secured them in a tight bow. I slung the bag carelessly over my shoulder and it beat against my back in protest, as if it wanted to stay here.

We were leaving. Shikamaru had decided that it was too dangerous to let Itachi stay in a room with anyone anymore, after my beating. Also, the Hidden Sound now knew where our base was we would suffer from more and more attacks. The safest route was to retreat back to Konoha and get Itachi's execution over and done with, even though we didn't have Kisame with us.

Kisame…yeah, he was gone. During the confusion, he had convinced Naruto to remove his restrainer and had slipped away in the aftermath. Naruto had been too concerned about Hinata to notice (he was such a dumbass) and foolishly ran off to get help without Kisame. I could throttle him, I swear.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto began banging on the wooden part of the door, clearly impatient with my delay.

I walked reluctantly towards the rice paper door but then paused as the hairs of my neck stood on end. A cold draft blew through the room and reached for me like invisible hands, trying to pull me back and stay a while longer. I began to walk again, hurriedly this time, desperate to get out of the room now. But…I stopped as I reached the entrance and looked back with a melancholy look in my jade eyes.

The lonely windowsill glared back at me and for a fleeting moment I saw a vivid red eyed young man lounging on it peacefully.

As I blinked however, the image disappeared and I was left standing alone again.

Uchiha Itachi

A quiet wind stole through the area like a stealthy thief, ripping through the dark cloak I wore. The silver haired copy-nin beside me grimaced slightly as the cold wind smacked across the face mercilessly. Well, 'face' wasn't the word…it was more his only visible eye. The copy-nin glanced at me in a fairly obvious manner, his bluntness surprised me slightly but then again, this was the copy-nin.

"Would you rather be with Sakura?" He asked me suddenly.

He watched me expectantly, anticipating my answer. I would not lower myself to such a level that I would lie as such, pride prevented me from doing so. However, telling half truths was how I had survived all these years. At the moment I decided that it was the best course of action.

"She is loud," I told him simply and his navy mask strained as he smiled a smile that didn't totally reach his onyx eye.

"Yes, but that wasn't my question, Itachi-san," He pressed me further for an answer. I glared at him coolly, remaining silent. The copy-nin's smile grew wider as he realized what my silence must have meant.

"She does worm her way under your skin, doesn't she?" He laughed quietly and I chose to ignore him, allowing him to talk to himself. His laughter then disappeared and was replaced by a saddened sigh. The heavy sigh was so different from his light laughter.

"Out of all of my students, she's the one I pity the most however," He murmured solemnly and I tried not to look interested. I merely shifted my head further away from the talkative ninja. A long silence fell and I waited for him to explain why he pitied the loudmouth.

He asked me, "Do you know why they're so unwilling to let anyone under the age of fifteen train to become a medic?"

My entire body stiffened and I remained as still as still could be. His words stuck a nasty chord inside of me and for a moment I had to check myself. I was concerned over that girl? How silly. But, this girl…she had trained to become a medic before she had turned fifteen? She…she was…

She was so foolish.

"You know what they say about medics. They begin medic-training and then they've only got about thirty years to go. But…if the medic-training begins when puberty hasn't completely settled in yet…" The copy-nin trailed off towards the end of his sentence and his sentence left a bitter taste in my mouth as I finished it off mentally.

"They've got twenty years left to live."

There was very complicated reasoning behind this, but it definitely wasn't a smart thing to start training as a medic-nin before you hit puberty. Your body hasn't changed yet and since you're already putting your body under a lot of stress, your cells start getting damaged. However, when you finally do reach puberty, your cells are already so damaged already that you put your body under even more stress because of the changes its going through. Since I was smart, I picked up on it immediately.

Medic-nin were the most respected form of ninja in all of society. It was a respect born out of sympathy however and countless medics after medic had died throughout the years.

Why did you think there were so many people unwilling to be medics?

His next comment threw me slightly off guard, "Had it not been for you, she never would have taken this job."

"I do not see how that is possible," I replied flatly and logically. I began to realize how fake his smile seemed, how tense his stance was. As I stared at his eye I realized the faint flicker of anguish and anger burning within it.

The copy-nin's smile grew into a slight smirk and he murmured a quiet, "Oh, really?" before lapsing into a lazy silence, watching me like a hawk for some sort of reaction. A few moments passed between us and I began to grow annoyed with him. He was obviously waiting for me to inquire further.

My temper got the better of me and I snapped a hasty, "If you are intending to continue then do so."

The copy-nin let out another short chuckle that began to grate against my nerves like a skin irritation. He was the epitome of aggravation and I found myself longing for the pink haired girl to replace this one; even though she was loud she wasn't half as annoying. He tapped his silver Konoha forehead protector twice before glancing at me with a solemn look in his eye.

"I'm very sure you know of your brother's little escapade to Orochimaru, yes?" He asked me and I inclined my head slightly in answer to his question.

"When Sasuke left, Sakura-san was heartbroken because she had loved him. So…in hopes of growing stronger and proving to him that she was strong she became a medic nin. It's all really your fault, considering that you're the reason he left and why he's hell bent on making himself stronger. Of course, Naruto's helped soothe that somewhat but avengers will be avengers," The silver haired man shrugged slightly as he finished.

"This is none of my concern," I told him blatantly and he shrugged again, looking up through the thick forest canopy at the barely visible dark sky.

"I don't know; I'm quite convinced it may be," He murmured quietly.

Hoshikagi Kisame

I supposed Itachi must have known by now that I had managed to escape. It didn't seem as though he would be joining me and I felt a small twang of loss in my chest. Annoyance followed soon afterwards, Itachi had been a good partner and now I doubted I would even be allowed to return to Akatsuki.

Returning to Akatsuki would be just like handing myself over to the Hokage for execution, it wasn't an option. I would probably be killed; I was on the leader's long time coming list of uselessness and since Itachi and I had both failed to capture the Kyuubi even though we had spent over three months of direct contact with him. Itachi would be luckier, he worked better alone and his genius was well respected within Akatsuki.

I knew that the Leader was going to ask him sooner or later if he wanted to become his deputy but now we had both managed to get captured, I doubted it would be a long time coming now. I knew that if Itachi were asked, he would take the position in an instant. He loved power.

I swung Samehada experimentally in a long arc, revelling in the way the wind whistled as the spiked sword cut through it mercilessly. It had been too long since I had held a weapon in my hand and it felt oddly unwelcome now that I thought about it. My days as a prisoner had ironically softened me up slightly. An image of a soft faced woman flickered through my mind and I growled deep in my throat as memories of her washed through my mind.

I supposed that Naruto and Hinata had reminded me too much of my own past, of my own messed up love life. It seemed like an age away since I had last seen Hikari and my throat still clenched at the mere thought of her name.

"I would look for you."

I reasoned with myself and gave myself eight weeks tops before Akatsuki or Konoha eventually hunted me down and killed me. I wasn't a good tracker nor was I stealthy; Akatsuki knew that more than well enough. It would be far too easy for them to find me and I decided to make the best of my short grace period.

"I guess I'm going back to Shirokami then," I thought solemnly, hefting Samehada slightly further upwards.

I supposed returning to Shirokami was a stupid idea. After all, I was just heading towards Konoha, the very place I was supposed to be brought to originally, and the ANBU ninja squad would probably stay there. At that moment and for a long time before, I held a total disregard for my own life so I guessed it didn't really matter. It was then I realized how utterly silly I was to leave the ANBU squad. They could have just killed me sooner.

I was using up far too much chakra far too fast as I raced towards Shirokami. It was a foreboding race against time; I needed to reach Shirokami before the ANBU squad or Akatsuki found me. I knew infinitely what my eventual and fatal prize would be but if I managed to see Hikari in the end it was a definite bonus.

I had intended to stay in a desolate city known simply as Shirokami for about three days before leaving to report to Akatsuki, having finished my mission a week before the supposed deadline. The city was a dirty and shady place, beggars in the streets and whores at every corner. Every now and again, you would hear the occasional scream of agony but after the first few screams you began to ignore the sound and walked on casually, pretending it had never happened.

I ducked as I entered the wooden structure of a rank smelling whorehouse, pushing open the dark red double curtains as I passed through them. The raucous laughter and flirtatious conversation halted immediately the moment I stepped into the room. Everything was replaced by an eerie and frightened silence. There was a quiet, polite cough and the noise from before returned. It was the slightest bit more cautious, reserved and quiet sounding.

A heavily made up woman approached me nervously, her fingers fidgeting nervously with the bright red bow of her pale white kimono. She asked me anxiously, "I-Is there anything we c-can do for you, s-sir?"

"How much does a whore cost for a night?" I demanded bluntly and she squeaked slightly as she caught sight of the huge broadsword I carried with me, strapped onto my back.

"Only three hundred yen, sir!" She answered me quickly and I pulled out three notes from within the folds of my cloak. I grinned at her, two rows of razor sharp gleaming white teeth revealed themselves as I did so, just to scare her. It obviously worked and she scampered over to a group of girls I presumed were the other whores.

A single girl was pushed out of the crowd and shoved towards me by two other women; both wore nervous looks on their faces. The girl they were pushing, however, she didn't seem in the least bit scared and her feet shuffled along the floor as she walked. She held onto the two women beside her for support and her head was bowed. I couldn't see her face.

When she was but two steps away from me, I gripped her chin and tilted her face upwards to get a better look at her. A white gossamer veil covered her face and when I made to lift it up the women around her began to protest loudly. Their voices annoyed me so I let the veil fall and paid them the three hundred yen they shrieked for.

The blonde haired whore wordlessly grasped my wrist and led me up a flight of stairs up to what I presumed were the private rooms. Her free hand glided across the polished banister and slid across the walls as she walked. I couldn't tell if it was for moral support or a guide in the dim light of the whorehouse.

She knelt down and slid a shojo screen open, her blonde head bowed. I entered silently and sat down on the futon laid out inside, watching the woman as she stood up and walked towards me. Her hands grasped my shoulders as soon as I was within an arm's reach and she sat down in front of me, her face still covered by that same white veil. I reached out and lifted it up, to see what this woman really looked like. I sat back on my hands and stared at her, uncertain what to do.

She was beautiful, yes, but…

I laughed loudly and bitterly, murmuring, "So they give me a blind whore."

Her mouth curved into a half hearted smile and she said in a womanly albeit unenthusiastic voice, "So it seems."

I sighed and picked up the woman, laying her down on the futon. She let out a quiet squeak of surprise and I smirked slightly at her discomfort. I would be lying if I said I wasn't at all sadistic. Her head turned to the side and her blind eyes closed, her entire body became rigid. I sighed and investigated how that annoying veil was connected to her hair. In the end, I grew so frustrated with it that I resorted to cutting it off with a kunai.

I stood up and walked over to the floor some few feet away from her, removing my thick Akatsuki cloak and draping it around me before laying down to sleep. The whore sat up with an expression of disbelief and confusion on her face.

"You're not going to do anything?" She asked me quietly and I shrugged before remembering that she couldn't see me.

"It's not like I'm going to let you screw me before you've even seen me," I pointed out to her bluntly. She crawled towards me, her hands feeling her way around until she touched the hem of my black and red cloak.

As her fingers traced a path up and down my body, I shivered and demanded in a softer tone, "What do you think you're doing?"

"I can see you with my hands. If I can touch your face I'll get a better idea of what you look like," She explained and I grasped her wrists tightly, lowering them from where they rested on my chest.

"You wouldn't want to do that," I advised her.

She smiled slightly and sadly before asking, "If you won't let me see you, then can I at least know your name?"

I remained silent, it would be foolish to give her my name (my real name anyways). A cautious silence descended and the two of us remained silent before she laughed breathily and introduced herself, "My name is Hikari."

I had stayed with her the whole night afterwards, just talking to her. Or rather, it was Hikari talking to me; at the time I had no wish to speak to a common whore. But then the night after that, and the night after that, and the week after that I stayed in Shirokami. I paid for her every night but we never did anything physical together. I supposed I had fallen in love with her, a blind whore with not even a penny to her name, and the ending to our story wasn't altogether a happy one.

Funnily enough, it seemed as though it had never really ended.

Uzumaki Naruto

We were all ready to leave for Shirokami and looked like a bunch of well dressed hikers as we stood around waiting for the order to leave. Hinata stood close to me and she nervously shuffled towards me. She still wasn't totally comfortable with our whole relationship thing. Her head inclined slightly towards mine but she didn't touch me at all. I sighed breathily and hugged her close to me. A small squeak emitted from the startled and very embarrassed Hinata and inhaled the scent that was so uniquely Hinata.

It knew it sounded terribly cliché and corny but…whatever.

She was fine when we were alone, there was nobody there to embarrass her, but when it came to public displays of affection she lost all form of confidence. Of course, it didn't help that Kakashi was there and hooting for things that were…sort of nasty. I was definitely killing Jiraiya for inventing Icha Icha Paradise.

As Kakashi yelled out something particularly rude, Hinata and I both blushed a bright beetroot red. I snapped back at him angrily, "Sh-Shut up!"

Kakashi chuckled to himself but the mirth was short lived as Sakura came back. Itachi stood to the side, his blood red eyes flickering open. There was a moment of utter silence as the two of them stared at each other and an anxious tension in the air threatened to choke me.

I half expected Sakura to throw herself onto Itachi, from what I had heard the two of them were quite close now, but instead she walked past him. She totally ignored him and Itachi's eyes followed her profile as she stopped at Sasuke's side, her bruises healed and cuts gone. My cerulean eyes narrowed as I realized she must have healed herself with chakra. My grip around Hinata tightened unconsciously.

When I could finally breathe again, Shikamaru turned to us and he shrugged, shoving his hands into his pockets. Drawing a cigarette out of his pocket and lighting it, he jerked his head to the left. It was an order for us to begin moving. I released Hinata from my hold. In a flash, we all set off quickly for Shirokami.

Shikamaru however lingered behind and sighed, flicking his red transparent lighter. A blue flame sprung from it and he knelt down, setting fire to a thin transparent string. The fire consumed it greedily and within seconds a whole network of string was revealed by the flames. He turned away and puffed his cigarette once, twice, before disappearing to catch up with the others in a smoggy black cloud of smoke.

It was only ten minutes later that the entire place caught fire.

Hoshikagi Kisame

"Do you still remember?" I thought to myself sitting on a wide tree branch, staring up at the sky.

The clouds were grey and bunched together tightly, streaked and swollen with teardrops that had yet to be shed. Up here, hidden by the branches but open to the sky, I felt as though I would be the first one to be hit by the rain. I would be the first one to receive sympathy from the gods. I wanted to feel the pity roll down my cheeks and taste the bitterness of life.

I wanted to feel something.

"It's going to rain soon," I commented and Hikari hummed in agreement, turning her head towards the direction my voice was coming from.

"You can smell it," She added, "I like the rain. You don't have to see it to know it's there. I can't remember what it feels like anymore though."

"Why not?" I questioned her curiously.

"We aren't allowed out of the building very often," She explained and my onyx eyes narrowed at the lack of freedom.

A quiet shower of rain stopped us both from speaking any further and she sighed breathily, inhaling. I watched her face glow with happiness and was overcome by melancholy, simply watching her. Her happiness was so short lived but her blindness and trust unfailing in its eternity. I approached her and put a hand on her back, resting my other hand behind her knees and she leaned into my hands willingly.

I lifted her up in my arms and she folded her arms across her stomach so as not to hinder me. A window at the other side of the room was left open and I stepped out of it, my feet secured to the wall of the brothel with chakra. I didn't stop walking until we stood on the roof of the building, high up above the people below us.

I put her on the ground and she clung to my shirt, her forehead pressed against my broad chest. I placed a hand on the small of her back, bringing her closer to me and whispered into her ear, "Can you feel that?"

The rain beat down upon the both of us and she smiled brilliantly, a smile that lit up everything around her. It was just so completely different from the ones before. I sat down, bringing her with me and she shifted, so that her back was facing my chest. I grasped her slim wrists and held them out in an arc and she began to laugh, a sound so genuine and warm that I soon found myself laughing along with her.

After a few moments of silence, she covered her mouth in disbelief and she began to cry, her tears mingled with the raindrops. I wondered if I had done something wrong for a moment. She grasped my fingers tightly.

"Thank you so much…thank you…"

I blinked on instinct as a raindrop fell into my eye. My memories were swamping me like a colossal tidal wave, my resolve was a cracking dam. I was so tired now though, I couldn't move my body at all and I was powerless to do anything but remember.

The memories hurt. It hurt so much to remember everything, to remember her. I was such a fool for falling in love.

"I envy you," Hikari murmured one night, her blind eyes shut and her voice quiet.

"Me?" I asked her in surprise and she nodded slightly. I pressed her further, "Why would you envy me?"

She laughed half-heartedly and reached her hands out for me to grasp. I took her slender hands into mine and her fingers closed over my palms. She answered me, "You can see everything. You can see the faces of the people you talk to, you can see people grow up and see the lies clearly on their faces. You can see what people are feeling and I can't see any of that."

I thought of what she said and after a long moment of silence, I told her, "That's bullshit, seeing isn't a blessing or anything. Sometimes…" I shifted slightly, stretching out my legs, "Sometimes, you see too much."

"I would give anything to see again," She murmured, ignoring my previous warning.

"If you saw me, would you run away?" I asked her mentally, afraid of the answer.

Instead, I asked her aloud, "What would you do if you could see again?"

She smiled a genuine smile, something extremely difficult to coax out of her, and she answered instantly, "I would look for you."

She had explained to me that her blindness was a disease; she hadn't had her eyes burned out or anything. It was possible to cure it but she didn't have enough money to do so, that was why she was in the brothel. I knew I had more than enough money to help her get it cured but I was selfish, I didn't want to help her. If she had her eyes healed she would see me and then she would run…I would lose her.

I supposed it was stupid. I had fallen in love with a woman, a whore at that, all in a matter of seven days. Compassion and love were linked hand in hand and both were the most useless and most painful emotions to bear. I wanted to cast off the burden that bound me but at the same time…I didn't want to forget Hikari.

I realized with a certain irony that she had never known my name.

I smiled bitterly, embracing the rain fully.

Even if Hikari recovered her sight, she'd never be able to find me again.

Next Chapter Preview: Bleeding Hearts

"Are you looking for someone? Or are you looking for something?"

"Do you always use force to get the things you want?"

A/N:

Uhh...sorry about the preview, it's not as long as the others. There isn't much dialogue in the next chapter but it's more a thought orientated thing. It's the big lead up to...to...yeah. I hated having to bring in Hikari but I had her in the old Never Ending Rainfall and I decided it wouldn't really be a rewrite with all the same characters. OCs kill me as much as they do you guys...except for this one OC in Wasted Years by Mizerable. Now she was kick ass.

Just to let you guys know, we're into the second arc. It says in big bold letters up top. From here on out, it's going to be really depressing and angsty. Not only that but I've hit this massive writing roadblock. I wrote one of the most depressing scenes in DE and I just lost inspiration. It's like it was too sad for me to write anything afterwards. And, I don't know what to put afterwards and how everyone would react. It's a difficult life, writing makes you feel like a psychiatrist sometimes.

It kills me to wait before I post up a new chapter but I like drawing it out just to annoy you guys.

And if you have any fanart that isn't up on my profile, please tell me. Someone gave me fanart but the link to the picture didn't work. I'd just like to thank everyone again.

One last thing! Do you guys know any really good stories?

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