It Tells a Tale
Dedicated to Yuun-Chan and Sabaku no Sarah-Hime
A/N: Ok, I'm telling you this right now. Aoi-chan is not in the best mood ever. So forgive me if I tend to rant and ramble on a little from time to time.
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Please, please forgive me,
but I won't be home again.
Maybe someday you'll look up,
and, barely conscious, you'll say to no one:
"Isn't something missing?"
You won't cry for my absence, I know -
You forgot me long ago.
Am I that unimportant...?
Am I so insignificant...?
Isn't someone missing me?
Even though I'm the sacrifice,
you won't try for me, not now.
Though I'd die to know you love me,
I'm all alone.
Isn't someone missing me?
Please, please forgive me,
but I won't be home again.
I know what you do to yourself,
I breathe deep and cry out,
"Isn't something missing?
Isn't someone missing me?"
And if I bleed, I'll bleed,
knowing you don't care.
And if I sleep just to dream of you
I'll wake without you there,
isn't something missing?
Isn't something...
- Missing Evanescence
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Several kunai flew at me, I dodged it. "You'll have to do better than that, freak!" I yelled.
"Wasn't aiming at you, honey," the man smirked.
"Don't call me honey!" I was fairly annoyed at this guy. Though his appearances...something didn't add up.
Ino screamed. I snapped my head around. Exploding notes? I toke a sharp intake of breath. "Everyone take cover!" I shouted.
My sentence was ended by the thunderous impact of the notes. The wall of soil fell apart; Ino was lying unconscious in the ground.
Jin!
I was horrified. But the horror was soon drowned in the pool of amusement.
Looks like Deidera-San actually taught him something useful after all. I smirked.
"Listen, stranger; whatever business you may have here is no concern of mine. My only concern is to become powerful and seek the revenge that belongs to me," Sasuke said viciously.
"Please don't start on your plan to take over the world and spare our ears from your sorry excuse for a rant!" I smirked.
Sasuke glared at me. "Whatever," he said. "Sharingan!"
I laughed nervously at his response, though this stranger...he seemed familiar, too familiar. Suddenly it hit me, "how can that be? He's not..." I mumbled to myself. My eyes widened, "You're Itsuwari Akeno, aren't you?" I enquired.
"Ah, I see my sister has not befriended a complete idiot," he smiled. "It's good to know, Shinko nii-chan was always careful with choosing her friends."
I narrowed my eyes.
"You sure talk a lot, don't you?" I taunted.
"I guess you could say that, I never was the quiet type, unlike nii-chan," Akeno laughed. "Anyway, seeing you gave no attempt to surrender the siblings, I have no choice but to forcibly take them."
Shower of weapons appeared above me. What speed! I thought.
"Fine, I admit; you are fast. Though strong you are, you still need to do better if you want to me to give up," I laughed. So what if he's a Jounin? Thousands have lost their life in my hands, who am I to be afraid of my team-mate's brother.
"And here I thought you were dead," I laughed, though that laugh sounded like that of a different person. Maybe I'm just startled.
"You wish! I am the prodigy of the Mist, and not to mention the only heir to the Itsuwari clan," he boasted. "As soon as I finish my sister and complete this mission, the Mizukage will restore my clan to its formal glory, without the mutt blood like Sister Shinko, of course!"
"Shinko is not a mutt blood!" I protested. "She's as pure blooded as you are!"
"Yeah right, she's the offspring of my mystified father and that good-for-nothing whore! The slut thought she could take my father away from Mother just because of her pathetic bloodline limit," Akeno smirked.
Shinko has half of a bloodline limit? Wow, now there's something new! Right now the question is: is this so-called brother of Shinko trustworthy?
"Tch, how should I know that you're not lying and..." I was interrupted in mid-sentence by Sasuke's annoyed complaint.
"Don't waste your breath with a freak like him, just finish him off!" he yelled.
I grunted in distaste, "Katon: Housenka no jutsu!""
The firework was pretty, in a spur-of-moment kind of way. Deidara sempai is right, art really is a bang.
I looked over my shoulders. Shinko lay behind the great oak tree; from this angle, I could see her bloodless face very vividly.
For a moment, I caught the glimpse of her scarlet eyes. I can't place that look, but I swore I've recognized it. Anger? No, that wasn't it. Sadness? Maybe, if just a hint; I couldn't figure out, the red spheres were blobbed out by some kind of haze. Confusion? Perhaps. What is that girl seeing? More importantly, what is Shikamaru seeing?
"Pay attention, idiot!" out came Sasuke's nervous cry, but I took the insult silently. I looked at the stranger's face; will Shinko be mad if I hurt her brother?
I dodged a few shurikens and snuck into the dense trees surrounding the clearing on the road.
In her coma, Shinko stirred slightly.