Chapter 2:
A Week Past
"It's true...He's back."
"That girl is pretty dumb to be walking with him."
"Who knows. She might be under a jutsu of some kind."
"You're right. It's too dangerous to be walking that close to him."
"The Hokage made a huge mistake this time."
Whisper upon whisper raced through the village after the pair of shinobi sauntered past. Akemi heard all of them, and she knew that he heard them, too.
'The villagers are so cruel to him. It must be lonely hearing this from his own people specially when he has no one to lean on.'
Still, even with the harsh scrutiny, the Uchiha continued walking forward, hands in his pocket and his famous glare looking on, towards wherever his feet was leading him. He didn't show any signs that the gossip coming from the mouths of Konoha's people affected him. He was still the same ice prince.
"Sasuke."
"What do you want," he merely answered without turning back.
"Nothing," Akemi backed down,"It's no big deal."
"Hn."
'He doesn't want anybody pitying him for any reason,' she thought.
Eventually, the dull noise of loud whispering died and was replaced by chirping birds and rustling leaves.
The forest, again. They've been to the forest practically everyday for about ten hours each within the last week. But Akemi was getting used to it. This was her mission's routine: wake up, go to the forest, watch Sasuke train, go home, and then fall asleep only to be woken up in the same cycle. She didn't mind, though. At least she now knew what to expect during the day.
Sitting up on the high branches of a tree, she watched as Sasuke began honing his skills more than they were already hone. Today, he was doing some fire ninjutsu.
'He seems so much like an endless void,' the gray-haired teen noted.
After spending more time with her ward, she'd come to realize how his daily life in Konohamaruwas compared to hers. He had to endure rude comments, belittling, hate, solitude, and loneliness with every step he took and every breath he mde. It made her sad that this was his reality.
Down below, Sasuke continued setting the posts on fire. He was not angry at all about how the Konoha citizens treated him. He understood their motive very well, and he gave them the right to look down on him for betraying them. But, at least now he knew how hard it would be to gain their trust.
He looked up to his guard's position for a second before going back to ninjutsu. She'd been tolerable so far.
Sasuke cleared his mind and began making a mental map at all the dummies in the clearing. Opening his eyes, he jumped and set sharp blades of fire from his mouth in multiple directions. In less than ten seconds, the ten dummies were turning into ashes. However, as the tip of his toes landed on the ground, a straw dummy flicked up behind him. In one swift motion, he turned around and spewed one fire ball towards it. But just as he did, he sensed that something was behind it.
'It's just an animal,' he decided and didn't bother to stop the fiery orb on its way to devour the false enemy.
A shadow, however, appeared from up top and sent a whip of water towards the flying flames causing a hiss and stem to result from the reaction. Then, as the mist cleared, Sasuke saw Akemi leaning down behind the dummy. He walked forward and realized that she was petting a mother cat feeding four kittens.
"You know, you have a habit of making me miss my targets," he commented.
Akemi laughed.
"I guess I have a thing for nature. But you, sir, have a horrible habit of aiming at living things."
"Well, I guess I have a talent of killing."
The kunoichi looked at the hidden sadness in Sasuke's words.
"You also have a talent for living with what you have, making the best of it, and making yourself stronger," she added, "Your talent for killing is just a built in system that comes with it."
She smiled at him. "But at least with it, you'll be able to survive, right?"
"Hn," was Sasuke's first reply, but later he decided to add a small, "Yeah."
--O--
The sun setting behind the horizon made way to shades of pink, red, orange, and violet being painted vainly in the sky. Sasuke and Akemi still remained in the clearing. Only this time, Akemi remained sitting in the ground, three kittens sleeping on her lap while the last one was on her right, drinking its mother's milk.
She petted them softly and her eyes held a warm smile upon the sight of them. Akemi had grown attached to the feline family after spending the last nine hours with them.
Sasuke, on the other hand, had continuously looked from the corner of his eye towards the group as he trained. He noticed how happy she was and guessed that cats were probably her favorite animals. When the light emanating from he sun faded into the silver luminance of the moon, Sasuke dropped his fighting stance and casually headed to Akemi's location.
"Let's go now."
"Um," Akemi looked up, "Ok."
Sensing her reluctance to leave, the Uchiha prodigy continued.
"Go ahead and take care of those cats for a while. I owe them for almost killing them all."
Silvery blue eyes grew wide until light glowed in them from the smile formed from the kunoichi's lips.
"Thank you, Sasuke."
Carefully, she wrapped the jacket she was wearing around the four sleeping baby cats and lifted them up to her chest in a protective grasp.
"Um..." she looked at the mother.
"I'll carry her," Akemi heard the teenage boy speak.
"Mmn," she nodded.
Slowly, they made their way out of the forest with the feline mother purring half way through.
Sasuke's ears detected the slight giggle escape from the kunoichi's lips.
"What's so funny?"
"Oh, I'm sorry. It's just that Kisa took a liking to you pretty fast. That proves that your not only talented in killing."
"Kisa?"
"Mhm. I named her that," Akemi confessed.
"Did you name them, too?" Sasuke asked, gesturing slightly towards the bundle in her arms since Kisa was cuddled in his.
"Yeah. The pure white one is Tenshi, the dirty white colored one is Tsuki, the black and white one is Shin, and the black one is Eien. Apparently, the first three are boys and Eien is the sole female."
"Hn."
Kisa's purring grew louder in the darkness resulting in a louder giggle from Akemi.
"It's not my fault that this cat won't be quiet," Sasuke commented.
"But it kinda is. Besides, purring isn't a bad thing. It means that she's happy," The Kamiya ninja told him, "It means that you have another talent besides jutsu and weapons."
"Whatever. I guess I'm a guy with many hidden talents."
A laugh was his response.
"I guess you are. But don't get too conceited with yourself."
Uchiha and Kamiya later emerged from the forest and were soon engulfed by the light of the town. Family laughed down the streets, couples held each others hands, and friends gossiped about the people they knew.
But as the conversing teens moved through, the crowd halted and parted, all staring at the unique sight of an Uchiha actually talking to a girl - a cat purring in his arms, too!
Familiar whispered comments resulted.
"It's the traitor."
"That girl is insane to be talking to a murderer like him."
Once the words reached the Uchiha's ears, his barrier, which had dropped during his conversation with Akemi, rebuilt itself. His cold glare returned and the carved frown on his porcelain skin reappeared. And Akemi noticed. Their conversation died down and they walked as though they were on death row. But she knew that this was actually killing Sasuke on the inside. The critiques continued to bombard their hearing - another deja-vu from the Uchiha's life.
"Why did he have to come back?" a woman gossiped to her husband.
"We don't need him," a man remarked.
"He should just drop dead and go to hell," an adolescent boy said.
"I agree. Why doesn't he just die?" his friend responded.
Something snapped within Akemi at their words. Seconds later, the two boys were seen flying towards a concrete wall of a store, their cheeks already swelling and bruising from the hard impact of the kick. The crowd gawked in awe and some gulped in terror. Then the two boys looked up and saw the deadly aura lurking just in front of them.
In a thin whisper, Akemi gave her threat, "Say that again and believe me, you will quickly and painfully see your life pass before your eyes."
"N-n-no! We promise! We won't say it a-again!"
"Y-yeah. W-w-w-we sw-s-swear!"
"And learn to keep you filthy words to yourself in the first place. Understand?" she questioned threateningly.
"Yes, sir!" they answered in unison.
Akemi turned on her heel and she passed Sasuke with a simple, "Let's go."
"You didn't have to do that," he told her once he caught her pace.
A minute smile graced her lips. "It's alright. I didn't mind. Besides, they deserved it for being ridiculously dumb."
Sasuke noticed the venom in her voice but ignored it and just continued walking, leaving the dumbstruck observers to stare with their mouths open after them.
Purring could be heard as Akemia Kamiya and Sasuke Uchiha passed the streets followed by a soft laugh of a female and a masculine sigh.
--O--
Here is Chapter Too! LOL
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