Disclaimer: I do not in any way, shape, or form, own Naruto or any of its characters.
Here's chapter two. Don't get too excited now, it's not that much sadly. My brain just wouldn't work. Review afterwards please! (:
Itachi glanced over at the Sound kunoichi lying asleep on his bed.
"What was the point in bringing that brat here?" Kisame asked impatiently.
Itachi turned his gaze back to Kisame, but didn't reply. He turned his head back towards his door, a few seconds later it opened, and in walked two other men, both dressed in the same style cloak as Itachi and Kisame.
The first one that walked in wore his golden hair in a high ponytail with a large chunk of bangs covering his left eye; this only made his exposed right eye of a pale blue stand out more. The man that followed had a head of dark, spiky hair. One could not distinguish facial characteristics because he seemed to have none; only a black circle, which appeared in the place of his right eye; and from it came lines that swirled to give his face the look of a small whirlpool.
"We heard you got side tracked while returning from your mission," the spiral-faced man spoke to Kisame.
"Don't look at me," Kisame replied as he pointed his finger to Itachi, "He's the one that had to make the stop."
"Who is she?" asked the blonde haired man.
The other three men turned to see the blonde sitting on the bed next to Hikari; he placed his pointer finger on the side of her mouth, and traced the trail of dried blood down her cheek.
"Her name's Hikari," said Itachi with no emotion in his tone.
"Orochimaru's kunoichi?" the blonde asked more to himself, "And the blood?"
He turned when he felt a tap on his shoulder. "That we're not sure of," Itachi replied as he handed the blonde a damp rag. "We found her unconscious in the forest a few miles away from Sound. A few yards away were two other Sound shinobi that were also unconscious."
The blonde took the rag and gently wiped the blood from the girl's cheek, his pale blue eyes taking in the look of her face. As he finished, the kunoichi began to regain consciousness.
When her eyes opened she tilted her head to the side to look at the blonde man sitting next to her, then her eyes moved to the group behind him, and finally her gaze came to lock with Itachi's. She stared at him until the blonde spoke and brought her out of her trance.
"You're awake," he said with a warm smile, "Are you hungry?"
Shocked by his pleasant manner, Hikari sat up a little only to clutch at her stomach as the pain ripped through again. She fell back down onto the pillow. "N-No thanks," she replied. Again, she turned to gaze at Itachi. "Who are you?" The question was really only intended for Itachi, but the blonde replied instead.
"I'm Deidara," he said still smiling, "That's Itachi, Kisame, and Tobi," pointing to indicate to whom the name belonged.
"The Akatsuki," she thought to herself, "This might be unpleasant..." She tried to sit up again; going more slowly this time, she managed to sit up and move to lean her back against the headboard. "What am I doing here?" she asked aloud.
Deidara didn't respond this time, instead he turned to Itachi, waiting for him to answer. Hikari turned to look at Itachi as well. Itachi just stared back at her; it was evident that he had no intention of answering.
"You should be a little more thankful brat," Kisame's voice broke the silence, and drew the attention of Hikari's eyes. He continued, "We could have just left you to die." He smiled arrogantly.
"Guh," thought Hikari mentally, "The psycho sushi expects me to thank him." She looked back to Itachi. "You're the Akatsuki, all rouge ninjas, excuse me if I'm mistaken but you guys aren't notorious for acts of kindness." Hikari crossed her arms over her chest, "What do you want from me?"
Hikari soon became irritated, seeing as her question yet again went unanswered. She turned and let her legs fall over the other side of the bed and touch the ground. She quickly stood up, and in response, the pain in her chest flared mercilessly. Her eyes squeezed tightly shut, and she cringed at the pain. Hikari quickly regained her composure as much as she could, and started to walk towards the door. She was inches away from the threshold when Itachi appeared inches in front of her, blocking her only exit. His crimson eyes looked at her with annoyance dancing in them. She felt as if his eyes were boring into every part of her, seeing parts of her character that even she had never seen.
"Leave," he said to the others without breaking his eye contact with Hikari.
The other three silently filed out of the room. Deidara was last to leave; he threw a reassuring smile Hikari's way before closing the door behind him. Hikari looked back into Itachi's eyes. After a few moments she spoke, "So you can talk?" She had intended to annoy him, but when he smirked mockingly she became annoyed herself. Her forehead wrinkled in irritation, her lips curled downwards into a frown, and she exhaled through her nose hard, a habit she had had since she was young. Kids in Sound used to compare Hikari to a mad bull whenever she got angry.
"I want to rip the smirk off his face," she thought to herself. "Are you going to give me any answer to my question?" she asked in annoyance.
Itachi remained silent, but he reached his right hand up towards Hikari's face. Her muscles stiffened, "What is he doing? She thought worriedly.
He placed the back of his hand on her cheek, and gently caressed it. Her muscles melted under his touch. It drowned her in a sense of comfort and security; a feeling foreign to her, but at the same time, it felt so familiar. Itachi finally dropped his hand from her face.
"I can see you're having violent thoughts kunoichi," he said in a suave, taunting voice. "You can't possibly believe you stand a chance against me."
When the mocking smirk painted itself on Itachi's face once more, Hikari's fist balled. In the blink of an eye her fist was flying towards Itachi's smirk. But in an even faster blink of an eye Hikari's blow was stopped, and her arm was pinned behind her back.
"She's gotten much faster since the last time I saw her," Itachi thought to himself.
In a shot of adrenaline, Hikari turned around as much as she could and threw her free fist at him. Again, Itachi stopped her blow. His red eyes stared into her hazel eyes; his eyes looked like they were laughing at her. The wrinkle in Hikari's forehead grew deeper, and she exhaled hard through her mouth to blow her bangs out of her eyes. She glared at Itachi as hard as she could, all the while, his mocking smirk never left his face.
"You're going to get wrinkles before you're 20," Itachi said suddenly.
Hikari's forehead softened, her eyes lit up in surprise, "What the hell?" she mentally said.
"As easy to surprise as ever, not much has changed about her," Itachi thought as he looked into her eyes, "She even smells the same…"
Itachi released both of her hands and walked over to the edge of his bed. He sat down, and glanced over at Hikari. Recognizing his hint, Hikari sighed and walked over to sit next to him.
"I brought you here," he began, "because I think that you'd be an exceptional addition to our group." He looked at her face, trying to find some emotion to indicate an answer he might receive.
Hikari was looking at the ground, showing no emotion on her face. After a few moments of silence, she looked up to meet his gaze.
"First," she said, Itachi eagerly listened, "can I take a shower?"
His head dropped.
Hikari frowned slightly, but then Itachi started to laugh. She stared at his head, "Has he lost it?" she said in her head. He lifted his head back up and thought to himself, "She always did amuse me." He nodded his head towards a door opposite the one she had tried to leave through earlier. "You've got 10 minutes."
Hikari sat up fast a walked over to the door, she opened it and stuck her head inside. "Eh, it's decent enough I guess," she thought. She walked in and found the shower, turning the knobs and adjusting the temperature, she heard the door close and she turned to see Itachi standing there.
"Excuse me?" she said irritated.
Itachi chuckled and plastered a cocky grin on his lips, "I don't think so. I'm not giving you any chance alone to try and pull some cute stunt to get me in trouble."
Hikari crossed her arms and frowned, "I'm not answering your offer until I get a shower," she said, attempting to persuade Itachi to leave.
"I'm not stopping you," he said, his grin widening.
Hikari glared at him, "Are you shitting me?" she thought to herself. She turned the shower off, and then turned to glare at Itachi more.
"She always looked cute when she was annoyed," he happily mused at his memories of the kunoichi before him.
After a few minutes, Itachi said, "You have about 6 minutes."
Her eyes turned into slits; Hikari was hoping that somehow flames would pour out of her eyes and burn him.
Finally, she stepped into the shower, and closed the curtains. Once she thought they were secure, she began to take off her clothes. She threw them over the curtain, purposely trying to hit Itachi with them, but doubted that ever happening. She turned the water back on, and began to shower as quickly as she could. She finished up, and turned the water off.
"God damn it!" she yelled aloud, realizing she didn't have a towel.
She stuck her head out of the curtain. Itachi still wore his cocky grin.
"Can I please have a towel?" asked Hikari as nicely as she could, but her eyes still showed her murderous intent.
"I only promised a shower. We never agreed on towels," said Itachi.
"Oh come on!" screamed Hikari. Itachi only laughed a little. "I'll just rip the curtains off and use them instead," said Hikari in a pitiful attempt to threaten a towel out of him.
Itachi's cheeks puffed out as he tried to swallow his laughter. Not being able to hold it in, his laughter filled the bathroom. After wiping a small tear from his eye, Itachi pulled out a towel from inside his cloak.
"You asshole," spat Hikari as she snatched the towel. She quickly wrapped the towel around herself and got out.
"Forgetting something?" Itachi asked.
"N-," started Hikari, but she stopped to think about it. Her palm hit her forehead when she realized she didn't have a change of clothes.
Itachi laughed again and opened the bathroom door, "Ladies first," he said.
Hikari glared at him again, and then walked out the door, back into his room. Itachi followed her out and then walked over to his dresser. Grabbing a black sleeveless shirt and some shorts, he turned and threw the clothes at her with a smile. Hikari stood up and took a few steps towards the bathroom. She stopped and looked back to see Itachi staying where he was.
"He's not following?" she asked herself.
Itachi smiled, "I think I can trust you this time—"he tried to stifle a laugh, "As long as you don't touch my shower curtains."
Hikari leaped at the opportunity and ran into the bathroom.
Itachi leaned on the wall next to his dresser, emerging himself into his thoughts.
"She doesn't seem to recognize me," his lips pursed into a hard line as he thought; "I know it's been 8 years…but still. She doesn't seem to remember anything. Orochimaru has probably tampered with her memory as he had said he would the night he took her. He was always so fixated on her, the power-hungry fool." Itachi's pursed lips turned into a frown as he thought about what that snake had done that night 8 years ago. "Even if he has messed with her memories, I know my Hikari is still in there…" a small smile pulled at his lips; "I just need to help her remember. "
Itachi's mental conversation was interrupted when Hikari stepped out of the bathroom fully dressed.
A smirk spread across Itachi's face as he quickly looked her over, "Even in baggy clothes, she doesn't cease to look so appealing."
"Come on," he said as he grabbed her gently by the wrist.
He led her out the door and into a hall way.
Turning left and walking to the end of the hall to make another left, the hall opened up into a big room. Half of it looked like a dining and living room while the other half was a kitchen. In the living room, a medium sized table sat in front of a fireplace. The three sides not facing the fire place were surrounded by three small lounging sofas. Each sofa could hold two people. The sofa that was to the left of the fireplace was occupied by Deidara and Tobi, while the middle one was occupied by Kisame. Itachi led Hikari to the sofa that was to the right of the fireplace.
As they sat down, Kisame asked, "So? What'd she say?"
Deidara and Tobi both looked at her. "What'd she say to what??" asked Deidara anxiously; he always did hate feeling left out of things.
Itachi looked at Hikari, "So? What do you say to my offer?"
Hikari turned her head to look at the empty fireplace. She tried to think through each choice carefully, reviewing the benefits as well as the consequences. Hikari rarely had difficulty concentrating, but to her dismay, that moment was one of those rare ones.
She grabbed the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes to try and concentrate, but she could not. Her mind was working too fast, she sighed as she found that she couldn't calm her thoughts, they were just as racy as when she was fleeing Sound.
"What have I got to lose?" she thought to herself. Quickly answering her thoughts, she mentally said, "Nothing, I have nothing to lose, but a lot to possibly gain." At this thought, her eyes opened slightly. She continued her mental conversation, "I've left Sound, and I have nowhere to go. I need to uncover my past, and maybe joining Akatsuki could help me with that."
A small smile spread across her face, and she released the bridge of her nose.
Hikari looked up to Itachi and nodded her head, "My answer is yes."
Itachi smirked, and Deidara yelled out, "Yes to what?!"
Kisame grinned as well, "Welcome to the club kid."
Realization hit Deidara, "Ohhh!" he exclaimed.
Tobi spoke for the first time in awhile, "How are you so sure she's capable of running around with us? I know she was Orochimaru's top kunoichi and all, but that doesn't automatically make her qualified to join Akatsuki."
Kisame's grin faded. "He's right you know."
"Don't worry," said Itachi with smug confidence in his voice, "She's plenty capable."
"You still should probably test her though," offered Kisame.
Itachi looked into Hikari's eyes, "I will."
--
The group of five ventured outside. Hikari looked around to see a forest that was denser than the one surrounding Sound.
"I wonder where we are," she thought.
They walked through some trees and into a clear field that looked like it had been used for training many times. A small pond, about 60 feet wide, was at the edge of the field. Hikari's eyes followed the ripples of the water to see them originating from a small waterfall.
"Wow." She silently said. The scene before her was remarkably beautiful in a quaint sort of manner.
"Ready?" she heard Itachi ask. She followed his voice with her eyes to see that he was about 30 feet away, in the center of the field.
"Damn it," Hikari thought, "He wants to fight."
Hikari stood her ground. But she quickly told herself, "Of course he wants to fight! And I have to fight as well, if I don't, then I may blow a perfect opportunity to find my answers; make my escape from Sound worth nothing." She reluctantly walked to the center of the field to stand opposite Itachi.
She took in a deep breath, and closed her eyes. She exhaled slowly through her nose, and opened her eyes to reveal those orbs of amethyst once again.
Itachi's garnet eyes stared into her pools of amethyst.
"This should be interesting," he thought to himself.
Simultaneously, each ninja took up a ready stance.
Hikari prayed that the pain in her abdomen would not flare up this time.
"Begin!" yelled Deidara suddenly, being too anxious to keep his mouth shut.
"Here we go," said Hikari quietly; her lips pulled into a confident smile.
Okay. I know nothing monumental really happened in this chapter, but I'm trying to think of a way to make Hikari and Itachi's battle interesting. I really do suck at writing battle chapters. But I'll try my best! Review please! I wouldn't mind a few pointers. (: