Madness upon

Upon arrival, the earth screamed.

Kisame, sword unsheathed, laughed whilst piercing through the soldiers with a black uniform she has never seen before. Amongst them, corpses of her beloved ones rested under her feet, complicating the dance of the ninja that continued to clash, and more than once their sandals smashed against the tender skin of the deceased.

"Ushikage," the soldier spat, heels digging on the tender skin of the cheek of the dead one, maintaining their balance with his chakra, which burned the skin of the one he was stepping on, "I'll take you out, for you're a menace for Master and our village."

"So much talking," Kisame laughed before charging, finally feeling entertained.

In front of her, Hiryur's body made the village's servant trip, and the swordsman celebrated by cutting his torso in half before he could evade. "Huh?" Kisame asked, smile shrinking out of existence, "that was all?!" He complained and gave the man's dying body a shake. No one paid her grief any mind, as she was seeing a man she knew all too well being stripped from any honor, Ino's heart sank to the bottom of her stomach and tears fell to the corner of her mouth. Another man, just as foreign to her as the previous one, emerged from the shadows, chains in each hand, and lunged forward towards the beast. Overwhelmed and terrified, Ino ran to safety.

Inside, marble and wood were left pristine, and while Ino ran to the only place she believed to be safe, the battle continued to ring in her ears. If she could reach the entrance and close it, those outside will surely leave at some point, she knew better than anyone the urgency that came with unattended wounds, and while touched by the star of strength, no person was to be left unscathed during battle, not even the fish.

The monster, Yokai, Itachi, was nowhere to be seen, if he found the battle like his partner did then they were either all dead -and he'll be waiting for her, or he'd been dragged away, giving her a chance of survival. Regardless, she walked towards the deep tunnel under the house and saw two masked ones glance in her direction. She wasn't sure where their loyalty lay, as they possessed no emblem to identify them, yet, in her desperation and weakness, she ran amongst their shouts and commands for her to stop. Kisame, whose energy and sounds were much more powerful than her pathetic form, soon drew their attention away from her, forcing her to be pitifully thankful for his presence.

At the mouth of the tunnel, a cold breeze caressed her skin and awoke goosebumps. Trembling, she pressed her body against the moldy wall and moaned her distress, she shut her eyelids tight, tears sliding from her cheek to her jaw. Sudden questions sparked in her brain; did they mistake her for a servant? Was it Itachi the one that killed her kin and these soldiers were merely reacting to the threat? Are there more Konoha soldiers? Was their presence a consequence of her absence?

Complete silence but the continuous drop that fell onto the puddle beneath it replied to her inquiry, Ino used its sound to guide her heart through its rhythm, trying to tame her panic. In her sternum, a faint thrum began to erupt and spread its warmth upon her chest, hope, she recognized, and it was bittersweet.

Pushing herself away, she staggered deeper inside, lungs burning and legs exhausted, Ino pushed saliva down her throat to control her thirst. Soon, whimpers reached her senses and she followed them like a wild animal, the call of the wounded. A white, completely filthy Kimono dressed the small frame, dark hair against blackness, Yua's cries bounced against the corridor, the small fire of a torch illuminating the pathetic spectacle.

A small drawing was on her skin, just under her wrist, the same place where the woman's lover had put his branding, Ino realized it was not like her mark, as it was similar to the ones embedded on the walls. She was hiding her chakra. Yua glanced up when noticing a presence close by, she saw Ino and her eyes became huge, then she bit her lips and her face contorted in such an ugly way Ino would have laughed hadn't she been so exhausted and defeated. "He… he was so cruel!" Yua hiccupped, her hands trembling on her shoulders where she hug herself, "I… I did everything he asked for! Everything – he, was so cruel! How c…could he l-leave me?! HOW?!"

Ino did not speak, looking at the woman trembling on the floor, to think that such a girl was able to subdue her and now she was trembling like a leaf, crying the grief of a broken heart… "H-he promised… he whispered it against my lips! M-marriage, freedom, children!" And she clasped her hands on her mouth, screaming intently against her palms, "liar! Bastard!" Her nails, broken by now, climbed up her throat and dug themselves into her forehead, "one mistake… such a tiny mistake… I shouldn't have… a reverse summon! I didn't know!" She cried out.

And then she glanced at Ino, brown eyes so obscured by her twisted desire it was hard to unplug her features from the shadows, "and they came, they were so precise… killed all of them before I could notice… the bastard's brain exploded before they reached him, he killed himself… the idiot!" She took such a long breath and screamed so high Ino brazed herself, "and then he came! My beloved one! Left me here with the body and everyone allowed him to pass!"

Ino's eyes, accustomed to the only source of lighting, were able to see the smallest glimpse of the body behind Yua, the blood that poured out of it had just reached her kimono, crimson red stained what remained white. "I…" and Yua plunged again into her self-pity party, palms of her hands forcefully pressed against her eyes, "I love you, I love you, please don't— I live by you…"

Ino swallowed, the sandal of the corpse was the only thing illuminated by the faint torch, she moved around Yua who was so engrossed in her tragedy that she didn't care about Ino.

To their feet she walked, Yua's cries the only song playing for this moment, Ino's fuel to go on was the slight seaweed of hopefulness that had knitted amongst her breast, she glanced quickly to the corpse, darkness claimed it on its fullest and there was no reason to risk it all for a glimpse; yet, if she was the cause of their demise, it was only fair to pay her respects, so she reached out to it with bone-like hands.

It was… just too heavy for her to drag, weeks and weeks of barely eating and Hyōrōgan pills had weakened her body, now that she paid attention to her limbs, she noticed skeleton-like fingers covered by a faint layer of skin. Her nails were broken, and her veins popped green against her paleness, all in all, she was the image of a corpse, far more looking the part than the one she tried to bring to light.

Sighing her apologies at the one deceased, she straightened her back to walk further inside and away from Yua, only a few steps was she able to move before someone grabbed her hair and forced her chest upon her back, "You" Yua smiled, "you were with him… he chose you…" Then she passed her tongue upon Ino's neck, who trembled in disgust. "You're so pale, bet that blood will look marvelous on you, did he think that too? What did you say to him?!" And then she tossed her back, Ino –such a weak and pathetic scum! Did nothing but fall.

Terrified, she tried to escape Yua's wrath, her hands covering her head while the woman kicked her ribcage. Ino wasn't graceful as she tried to push herself away from her attacker with weak limbs, and amidst the pain and darkness, she knew she was to die here, die in a distasteful manner for a kunoichi, weak and without strength to even try to defend herself. Yua's smile widened, and at that moment Ino pursed her lips, for death was bitter.

The torch's light weakened with each of Yua's hits, which were ungraceful and inexperienced. Ino, now sobbing, knew she was to die slowly as the woman didn't know how to kill quickly. Pitiful, she was to die ungraceful.

The faint flame shifted then, illuminating just the right spot at the exact moment Ino saw, and she was to learn how pale his father's eyes have become against the orange hues…

Ah –she thought, so this is what dying feels like, because for that instant the inexplicable, and inexorable truth was that not a single thing Itachi did to her was even as remotely painful as this was.

She glanced around the room, watching each particle of darkness, trying to make everything make sense because… no, Inoichi was in Konoha, there was no way -no conceivable reason for him to be here, for him to have died at all. Not without her safe or nearby. He wouldn't have died with her missing, he wouldn't have blown his brains out, because Ino was important to him… she was… and he wouldn't die before finding her… he wouldn't leave her…

It was a genjutsu, Yua was putting her under a genjutsu again. Of course, Ino thought, the woman was cruel and hateful, so she used her father's image to torture her… that made far more sense than her father's passing, so she, trying to make everything real again, trying to break free, pinched her neck hard enough to make it bleed, yet the corpse didn't disappear.

The corpse, eyes and skull open, remained.

His blood, which was splattered across the floor continued to spread until it touched her cheek, she glanced at the woman before her eyes could even water, and saw the stains of red on her ankles and kimono. Her father's essence decorated her garments, and Ino realized in pure horror and agony, that it also painted her own countenance.

Yua smiled, almost gently, when she saw the trail of Ino's red on her neck.

She wondered how she looked with her beloved one's blood upon her skin before the ear-piercing scream left her mouth, and oh, not a single panic attack has ever felt like this, so destructive, so unfathomable painful. At which moment she could sit escaped her, for everything she could see was the blood dyeing the white fabric of what likely was a wonderful robe before. The moment must have startled the attacker that stumbled back and fell when Inoichi's body stopped her motions abruptly, in that second when her beloved father helped her even when dead, Ino sprung to action, guided by something far worse than rage, grief.

And, at the moment she dug her broken nails into Yua's neck, she remembered how her last goodbye to him was a short one, for she was so excited to leave for the mission she cared not for a proper hug… Ino continued to scream, her nails weren't sharp enough to cause more damage than a scratch but scratch she did, marking the pretty face of the imprisoner with her signature.

Ino had given her back to him, she had told him goodbye and had turned her back... Punches, weak and pathetic, flew from her, and while uncoordinated and anemic she was so relentless Yua couldn't shake her off… Her father's last image of her was Ino walking away, and she'll never forgive herself, she should have walked backward, she should have hugged him tighter, she should have told him she loved him so much more, she shouldn't have come… Grabbing her hair, Ino dug her nails into Yua's skull, tightly imprisoning her locks on her fingers, what remained of chakra flew to her hands, and she burned the woman's scalp while tightening her hold, the last vestiges of her control withered away in her attempt at not burning the hair in itself. She forced the woman's head up, and then down, and then again, and then again, and again… Luck was never on her side, Ino knew this, she was born common and will die common, she wanted to prove herself valuable and left a trail of corpses on her path and she turned her back on him… Yua tried to move her, and despite succeeding in turning their positions, coming on top of Ino, she was not grieving, so Ino threw her head forward, caring not for the pain nor her weakness, and when Yua's head recoiled she did what she saw so many years ago and bit.

The taste of blood was awful, the essence fell inside her throat yet she bit harder, so much harder, the carotid artery wasn't hard to find… she was a medic... oh if Tsunade could see her like this… would the princess vomit? When she finally let go of her prey, Yua's hands flew to the wound, and her blood bathed Ino's eyes and joined her father's blood too, and Ino thought this wasn't enough, so when Yua fell to the other side, pathetically dying and trying to live at the same time, Ino continued her assault and, screaming, kept bashing the pretty head of the pretty hateful woman, and when Yua didn't move anymore, Ino continued, and forced her head up, and then down on the floor, and then up and down on the floor again, and again, and again…

Blood and tears were upon her face, eyes big and exorbitant, she glanced at the man that raised her and loved her and called her his own when standing, felt the hollowness in her chest, and realized in that mere second, she was gone alongside him.

And she thought she was broken before…

Her arms, limp and useless at each side of her as she possessed no more energy on them to spare, shook with mourning as she realized that she wouldn't be able to hold him nor take him with her. She kissed the air in between the love of her life and herself, promised to cry for him always and, once again, turned her back on him.

"Kosuke," she spoke, and her image must have been pitiful, for she was dying. The man with the skin of his son looked at her and widened his eyes.

"Ino-sama," he said, and it was spoken so seriously but with the tone of a toddler, it was odd… "have you… succumbed?" He asked, roaming his eyes through her figure with an expression similar to pain, it was difficult to watch.

"I'm dying, yes." She said, and sat on top of the broken glasses around her, trying to pretend that this, whatever was happening, was fine, Ino was sure there wasn't much else to live for, as the pain was too strong to get by, was Itachi close? She didn't care either, she'll die soon now… at least, she thought, she'll die with someone besides her. It was cruel to let him perish alone…

"No, that's—"

"Do not worry now, Kosuke" she said, and her voice was foreign to her ears, she glanced at the mirrors before her, and saw herself skinny and wounded and covered in so much blood… "do I look truly like that? I thought I had control over my image when projecting…"

"Ino-sama," Kosuke didn't allow her to continue, "our captors…"

"She is dead," she replied, "took a pill from her pouch, the last Hyōrōgan … I…" she mumbled, broken, "I couldn't carry him… I don't want to die alone…"

The small boy bit his upper lip harshly, not replying to Ino's words, his eyes, big and silver, were coated with tears that refused to fall; when watching him, so young and small, Ino's anguish resurfaced, for she was older than the real kid, but she wasn't that much older either. She saw herself reflected in his immense sadness, bloody and skinny, and had to look away not to allow him to see any more of her weakness.

When she glanced away, she saw sparkles of light of herself and Kosuke reflected to infinity through uncountable amounts of glass shards, she felt the pain of the crystals embedded in her skin, tasted Yua's blood in her gums, heard the low rumble of her empty stomach, it was an uncomfortable way to die. Then Kosuke's face turned towards the place she was looking, finding her gaze amongst the vast possibilities, he smiled at her despite being broken and, without thinking, she smiled back, the last vestige of kindness in a cruel ambiance, it was a nice gift to give when departing.

Ino thought about the nice boy and herself and how pretty it would be to feel safe again, to hug those you love and were taken away from you, she thought of Natsuo and of Inoichi, she thought about how she and Kosuke would give everything to see them again and it translated on a low tune in her throat, closing her eyes, she imagined the music box that her father made for her, she allowed herself to be washed by the feeling of his chakra and the metallic notes of the gift one last time while she sang, the tune all too familiar for the both of them.

Bright light picked through her eyelids and she opened her eyes at the intrusion, stopping the sound coming from her throat, Kosuke's figure shone with a yellow hue that vanished once Ino stopped singing. Afraid, she kept staring at the mirror that held the boy's image and saw the same expression he possessed before she closed her eyes, he hadn't noticed his shift. Ino swallowed, glanced at the real image once more, and biting her lip, she started to sing again. At first, nothing happen, it wasn't until the second part of the melody that his body started to shine again, light starting at the bottom of his feet and moving upwards, the brightness forced Ino to squint her eyes and bring a hand to protect her vision from damage and she saw, amongst the scorching light, a faint red pattern upon the boy's forehead before it was swallowed by yellow.

It continued until the last vestiges of the melody, it became brighter and brighter to the point Ino had to shield herself from the light bouncing from the mirrors surrounding them, it was so overwhelming she almost screams when feeling the heat radiating from the vanishing image of Kosuke's last defense.

Suddenly, everything stopped for enough time for Ino to look up, finding herself in front of none other than Kosuke, the real Kosuke, for an adult figure with the same red hair and gray eyes watched her alongside her misery, the man furrowed his eyebrows and pursed his lips, he didn't bother to look around at the mess of his landscape, and simply said, "save our clan." Before a new colored light busted from his chest to swallow her whole, dying her eyes with purple color.

The truth, as it turns out, brought her even more desperation and fright.

Itachi will kill all of them.

He brought her back with a powerful pulse of chakra against her the base of her skull, she gasped when forced to reality and he smelled the traces of her burnt hair under his fingertips. Her hands started shaking so badly that Itachi moved away from her, allowing her to curl into a ball.

"N-no," she moaned, "n-no." There were whimpers in her voice, a sadness that could not translate into tears due to her exhaustion, "I… wanted to die with him…" her voice broke, and she shook harder, far more intense than he thought she should, anguish wasn't the only thing forcing this upon her, a fever was likely claiming, finally, her body. She was so weak and deformed now that everything was ending… her skin turned yellow, and she smelled like death. Itachi wrinkled his nose in distaste.

"My father…" she whispered, and not because of lack of intent but because of lack of air… slowly, she was fading.

There was no pity from him, he experienced and caused far too much grief to empathize with anyone, however seeing her like this, turned into a curled shivering mess, brought no joy either; another heir whose life he'd ended.

His eyes, black still, turned towards the man laying still upon the dirty mattress, the man's gaze which previously possessed sparkles of life, now had no more of the previous light. A dead man and a dying woman, this is what he'd found after discovering Yua's body alongside Inoichi's, a gruesome spectacle she had left behind fueled by anger and mourning, he supposed he should feel bad for pushing both women into each other, but sacrifices were necessary to ensure the kingdom's prosperity and Ino, being a loyal servant, should understand the privilege of dying for such cause.

Yet he found himself once again interrupting such destiny as she was dying, despite not knowing, for nothing but his own suspicions.

Wet sounds and a high-pitched scream brought him back to his senses, and when he reached the woman and turned her around, fresh blood greeted his vision alongside the horror of her face, one of her eyes was still attached to its nerve yet pale, useless; the other one clung to the girl's nails -it shone green with the remains of her scalp technique. It was a sloppy, gruesome work, the metallic smell of her blood made him purse his lips, the most expressive he had ever been and she wasn't able to see.

She was still whimpering, shaking uncontrollably under his hold, she opened her mouth as to say something, her lips stretched almost in a smile, but her agony was so raw, her body collapsing at a such rapid speed that her jaw opened and the faint gesture disappeared alongside what remained of her self-control.

It was a torturous way to die, a self-inflicted wound that'll kill her faster, he awoke his Sharingan and tried to put her under his command before her passing, yet his gifts were unable to penetrate her blindness; shaking with something close to fury, he slapped her to get a reaction, but in her agony, she had become untouchable, nothing he could do to her would ever be more torturous than what she was already experiencing.

She was safe from him.

Rage mixed with something thicker and darker inside his belly, fire spread through his veins to every part of his body; the hands that held her turned red with heat, and a sudden desire, whose reasoning or objective Itachi couldn't comprehend yet, flickered to life.

Itachi smiled.

A/N: While in the manga Root members display their Hitae Ate on occasions, I decided there's no reason for them to expose their loyalty when on a foreign land they have, technically, no reason to be on, which is why I took off such garments from their uniform.

I'm incredibly nerfing Itachi at this point, for which I'm not proud, I'll excuse myself with the idea that this is inside the span of time before Naruto's return, from which all of this would be impossible as he's amongst the strongest and fastest inside the manga. Perhaps I shouldn't bother writing a story that works solely by downgrading one character's capacities, but I'm too far gone to stop. Apologies if this bothers you, I'll try to bring him back to reality soon.

In case you haven't realized… my characters aren't exactly sane, so if you think that something it's an illogical reaction to a stressful situation, it probably is. As a recommendation, it'll be more reasonable for you as a reader to detach yourself from your expectations when it comes to how a character would/should react in specific situations, as I'm exploring really dark topics, I know that's not everyone's cup of tea, so consider this a warning for future chapters.