Disclaimer: NARUTO IS NOT MINE!
Me: Yet another edited chapter....
Chapter Five
"Temari, could you get me a glass of water?" Temari sighed.
"This is the fifth time you've asked: yes, in a minute. I need to file all of this." Temari was hunched over a desk with towers of papers while Emily was in a chair next to a nearby water cooler. "Why can't you get it yourself," Temari said, shaking her fist. Why had Gaara assigned her to get all the important documents copied and put in alphabetical order anyway? It isn't like they had to be!
"Because my arm's broken, and you told me not to move it," Emily said. Katie was sitting next to Emily, reading a book on the right way to sharpen a kunai.
"Katie," Temari said. Katie looked up from her book. "Could you get your twin a glass of water?" Katie sighed heavily.
"I thought you'd never ask!" She reached over and got a plastic cup and filled it with water. She handed it to Emily, who gave Katie a look.
"Why so evil today?"
Katie went back to her book and after a minute, replied, "Because the problems of a female are a pain in the ass." Emily nodded.
"Oooohhhhhhh...I see." She decided to change the subject.
"Why are you reading a book on how to sharpen kunai?" Katie looked up from her book again, irritated. Why couldn't she just read in peace?
"To kill you," Katie said, earning a pale look from Emily, "not. I want to know how sharp a kunai has to be to go through a man's skull. It's going to be useful against a certain someone..." Temari looked up, interested to do anything other than filing.
"I know how to find out without having to read," she said brightly. "I could ask TenTen, the weapons mistress of the Leaf Village!" Emily groaned.
"By mistress, do you mean old lady? Cuz I've had bad experiences with those bitches!" Temari's eyes widened with rage.
"NO!! TenTen is a year younger than me, and a very good friend!!! If you want your other arm broken, you'd better stop insulting her!!" She reached for her fan threateningly.
Katie groaned. "You've done it now, dumbass. Now she's pissed! You shoulda just gotten yourself killed with the rest of the family!" Emily held her hands up.
"OK, OK, calm down!! It was just a question, nothing more! I wasn't trying to insult her, really!!" Temari took her hand off her fan and smiled weakly.
"Sorry. It's just when I first met her, we were pitted against each other and I beat her up really bad. I nearly broke her spine and I felt terrible when I learned that she was a really nice person that no one really noticed. After the Chunin exams, we became fast friends, but she still has a scar from when she landed on my fan. I've never really felt right about it, so I hate it when people insult her and all."
"Oh. I used to have someone like that... just after I helped him out after a battle with some weird albino dude, he had said, he never came back." Emily said, looking out the window to the raging sands outside.
'Where are you, Sasuke?'
(The stupid line break thing wouldn't work in this point, so this little Bold-Italic thing is going in it's place. Carry on.)
Hermione cuddled unknowingly next to Itachi as she slept. And Itachi, who was wide awake watching her, didn't seem to mind. Hermione stirred when Itachi got up to get breakfast, but went back to sleep. Minutes later, Itachi came back to her and set her breakfast down on the bedside table. "Hermione, get up. I have your breakfast right here," he said, shaking her a little bit. Hermione stirred and opened her eyes lazily. She almost forgot to act until she felt his hand on her back. 'That's right... he's the one who tortured me in the memory of my deceased loved ones... asshole.'
"Huh? You got me food? Thank you, Itachi-kun." Hermione rubbed the sleep from her eyes and reached for the orange juice. She drank from it and some got on her chin. She reached to wipe it, but Itachi got there first; he got out a napkin and wiped her chin clean.
Hermione blinked and blushed faintly, which was no act. "Thank you, Itachi-kun." Itachi smiled.
"You shouldn't have to do anything until we go to the Land of Waves. That's when your jutsu will be needed." Hermione looked up from her rice ball, puzzled. Why the hell are they going to the Land of Waves? She'd only been there a couple times for family missions; she had a couple friends there that ran a small general store.
"The Land of Waves? Shouldn't you have captured Kenisha instead of me, then? Her water jutsu are stronger than thei--"
"Kenisha is in a place I don't favor right now, and you can't fight water with water. You need an element that can cut through water like butter. That's where you come in. My fire jutsu are useless against them," Itachi interrupted. Hermione nodded. 'So, we'll have to destroy my friends' home, huh? Hopefully, I can get away then...'
"I see. When do we leave?" He laughed.
"Oh, that won't be for a while now: we have at least a couple months until then. Maybe more."
Hermione looked at him quizzically. "Why plan so far ahead? Somebody could make a major change over there that could lower our chances of success." Itachi shook his head.
"You have a good point, and that's why we have Zetsu keeping watch over the village as we speak. He keeps us posted on any sudden changes or going-ons there." Hermione nodded and smiled.
"You guys seem to have everything planned out. Good work."
"Thank you." He eyed her rice ball enviously. "I want some." He tore the rice ball in half and took the smaller half.
"Hey!"
"Shut up, you won't starve. Just eat." They ate in silence and after they were done, Itachi took the plate back to the main eating hall. While he was there, he got a question from a fellow member. Like Pein for instance.
"Uchiha, is your new partner a blessing to this organization or an omen threatening to send us to our black doom?" His voice echoed throughout the large room, and some other members listened in on the conversation. Itachi took a deep breath.
"Sir, Kimochi Hermione is most definitely a worthy addition to the Akatsuki. She is an enemy of the one we seek, and her cousins are the same. Hermione will be of great use to us with her mastery of Futon jutsu: she is a blessing." The leader nodded.
"That is all. Back to your quarters, Uchiha."
Itachi did so and found Hermione looking at the ceiling. 'She certainly is a blessing, sir. She will of great use to you and to me.' He smiled at her, but little did he know that she had listened to the whole thing.
"So Hermione, how would you feel about taking a stroll with me for a while? I would like to know more about you..."
Hermione smiled. "OK Itachi-kun..." She got up and followed him to a small door she didn't notice on her first night there. Itachi stepped to the side to let her through first, and saw a small staircase leading to a light at the top. As they walked, Itachi cleared his throat and Hermione looked at him. "Hai?"
"What are your favorite things?"
"My favorite color I'd have to say is white. It's pure, yet it can blind someone. And it is the color you see before you die, or so I've been told...My favorite music, I'd have to say, is the piano and some slow romantic songs: I don't care what genre on the romance. For food, I have an unhealthy addiction to sweets, cookies mainly. I can bake just about anything, so it doesn't help me at all when training comes along... I also have a fetish for plushie toys... they're so soft, so plush." Hermione giggled. "I'll have to get some more; my other ones burned in the wreckage." She cocked her head. "Anything else you want to know?" Her voice echoed up and down the narrow passage, reverberating in Itachi's ears. He liked the sound.
Itachi nodded curtly. "Hai. What do you like to do, normally?"
Hermione blinked; why would he want to know that? "Well, I like being outside where I can sit and enjoy nature, or I could sit and sing, or write. I'm a fair writer and my mother said that my voice was like the melody of an angel's lullaby." She laughed under her breath, remembering that her father was absolutely speechless. "I also like learning new languages. I just got through teaching my younger cousins Spanish when we first got attacked. I know that and German, Egyptian, and some Chinese. I never really got Chinese though; too many words pulling up in odd places." The stairs had taken them to a bare patch of land, kissed by the wind and warmed by the sun. Hermione smiled lightly and spun around, relishing in the feeling of pure air on her skin.
"You're enjoying this," Itachi asked, raising an eyebrow at her actions.
Hermione slowed her spinning and nodded. "Hai. Feeling my element around me, the peace; it really sits well with me. It helps me relax." She sighed and stood where she was, looking up into the sky with a slightly curious expression.
"What else helps you relax?" She looked beside her and found him there, looking up where she was. She went back to looking and sighed.
"Talking to my cousins and my mother: They're very interesting people. Or, at least my mother was... I have no idea if they other three are alive or not, because you took me here." She paused, fiddling with her sleeves before looking at him. "I also listened to music with a certain person... He taught me so many things, that man. Music calmed the soul, so if you thought about a certain song long enough, you could calm yourself and keep a level head in battle. He also taught me many Futon jutsu, and even some of the healing arts... I don't know where I'd be without his guidance beforehand. My sensei... None of this helped him in the battle, there were just too many. I had tried to save him, but the damage was too great"
Itachi looked at her with an emotion he had never felt for another person before: empathy. He had tried to save Kisame, for he was the only person in the organization that he could tolerate, and also because he enjoyed fighting alongside him. But the fish-like man had been sliced and battered by many enemy Iwa ninja. That is why the we're after the Tsuchikage's head."
Hermione chuckled darkly. "So it isn't for any of his other crimes against humanity. As soon as the strife hits you, you get involved." She gave him a cold look. "We've been fighting him since he was exiled from our clan 30 years ago. Maybe not openly, but we were. He should've gotten a death sentence rather than an exile. The air that he breathes is tainted with the blood of thousands of lives lost..." The wind around the two picked up, rustling Itachi's cloak and giving him goosebumps. Hermione looked unaffected by the wind, but very upset about the present subject. Her eyes had clouded and her expression had deepened into an infuriated frown.
"He could've died when we closed in on him...." The clouds were slowly rolling in, the wind chilling Itachi's bones and making him wonder how such a power was so easily defeated. "But then he killed them... my mother and father... he just laughed at their corpses and spat in their blood! He shall not be forgiven, not now, not ever!" The wind howled around them, pulling leaves from the forest hundreds of meters away, making the clouds block the sun and Itachi turn to her in surprise.
Hermione was crying softly. "They just rushed in... no time to reac-act, no time to prepare... We had the sh-shinobi and k-kunoichi, true, but they just- We lost so many! The children ha-adn't even left their school! It was a c...complete sl-slaughter." She took a breath and closed her eyes, as if picturing the fateful day in her mind. "The Suiton side of the family was already weak from trying to protect the central family on an earlier battle: on that particular day, we had lost 4 elders and 2 shinobi, and the rest were injured. Kenisha was kept in the compound, instructed not to fight unless the situation was dire. I, as well as my other cousins, we instructed to stay. But no matter how much strength we had, or how much Chakra we used... he still annihilated us. We were lucky we escaped with only some curable injuries. But our family... not even heaven could have saved them." She turned to him and opened her tired eyes, forgetting that she was supposed to be acting so she could get out of there. She couldn't act, not now. Her tears ran freely, but no sound was made. Just the howling of the wind around them.
Itachi felt an odd need, much like the earlier emotion, overcoming him: He wanted to comfort the poor young woman. He restrained himself, however, and let the wind die down. She wept in silence, holding herself pitifully as the sunlight came back into their small piece of the world. She finally opened her eyes and stared deep into his, feeling as if she was the only one there; that his eyes were just the dark abyssmal pools of nothingness her clan was now in. But he closed them. Her nothingness was now non-existant, as was he. He had disappeared again.
Then she felt two strong arms on her, gripping her to the clothed rock that was Itachi's body. She tried to escape; she didn't want his small comfort. He only wanted to use her. But the way he held her.... it felt right to her. Itachi also felt it right, to be holding such a woman. He felt like it was not only helping her, but himself. Then it struck him: Itachi didn't like to see Hermione cry.
"Hermione...," he whispered, making her jump slightly. Itachi scraped his head past her neck and rubbed his clear cheek on the border of her jaw, his hair tickling her cheeks. "There's no need to cry anymore."
She felt his warmth and almost fell into it, as she would have with anyone else. But this was a stranger; an S-ranked criminal no less. She couldn't fathom why he would do this, other than to take advantage of her. But it seemed so sincere.
The act was over. She leaned back and let her shoulders share the burden of loss, smelling his herbal scented hair and letting the last of her salty tears lose themselves in the ebony strands. "Itachi-kun... arigatou."
Me: Why did you ask for a glass of water 5 times?
Hermione: I thought the focus was on me here... isn't it?
Katie: Attention hog...
Emily: -to Me- Hello? Sand Village here!! Hottest place I've ever been to!
Temari: I don't think it's that bad...
Katie: Just ignore them, Temari, there's no point. Right Hermione?
Hermione: -nods- Bakas...
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