"Naruto." It sounded like Sai was trying to get my attention.
"Mmh?"
"Good, you're conscious again." I vaguely noticed someone was sitting me upright. I felt something solid on my back.
"Huh?" I murmured, still somewhat out of it.
Sai asked, "Does anything hurt?"
I tried to process the words. I got hurt, and I was aware it was a question. I think. "No." But when I shifted so I could sit up more, my hip stung, causing me to cringe. "Okay, a little."
"Broken?"
"Bruise…Maybe. It'll be gone soon." I opened my eyes, and it took me a moment to focus, but when I looked past Sai and saw Sasuke on the ground, I was fully awake and my brain reprocessed the information from before I was hit.
I attempted to get to my feet too quickly. I was fully conscious now, and could feel the pain, centering at my hip and jolting through the matching leg and my upper body. "Crap!" I growled, pressing my hands to my throbbing side.
"Sit, please, you'll make it worse."
"It's just a damn bruise, it's nothing!" I replied.
"It's not nothing when 170 pounds of angry Uchiha slams a piece of metal into your hip." He grumbled, but I ignored him. I half ran and half stumbled towards Sasuke, hands only leaving my hip when I reached him.
"Where's Itachi?" I asked urgently, trying to not think about what I had just learned too hard. I turned Sasuke face up and noted his normal breathing and pulse, pulling his head into my lap.
"Gone. No Idea. They fought for awhile and matched each other, than he struck Sasuke and he ended up like that. Or at least, that's what it looked like. Maybe some kind of technique. He could have hit a vein." Sai replied, dropping to a sit at Sasuke's feet. "What's up with you?"
I pushed Sasuke's inky bangs away from his slightly damp forehead, then looked up. "You mean…"
"What happened?" His face had been absent of his trademark smile for quite awhile now.
I took a deep breath, thinking about what exactly HAD happened. I had been hit with what I was sure was the truth, even if unproven. I could barely even gauge a reaction. I had just woken up from a small coma, AND hadn't had shuteye, besides that. If the words were retold, maybe I could understand what it all meant. "It's a long story."
"We've got awhile." Sai replied, motioning towards Sasuke.
-Flashback-
"I won't do a thing. You can capture me, or whatever it is you want to do, just leave." The stunning, unexplainable fear had returned as expected. Maybe it was his eyes, or his aura.
Itachi said nothing. As far as I knew, he was alone. Now there was no one in Konoha, and the people were safe. I thought about asking to confirm that, but thought better of it.
"Well?" I asked, trying to sound brave. How childish. Anyone else, and I would have been fine, no, confident, I'm sure. Maybe the reason I felt so uncomfortable around him was not fear or hate. He was just so unreadable.
His eyes -the only visible part of his face- closed, and I couldn't see him. Then I realized I had been expecting him to move, and I closed my own eyes so I wouldn't be nauseated. When I looked again, he hadn't moved a muscle.
"I'm not taking you to Akatsuki." He clarified, and I'm sure my mouth dropped. "But we have to move somewhere else." His smooth, dark voice was like ice that you could almost feel because you were sensing it so intensely.
Apparently he had been here for me this time, because he never mentioned Sasuke. But what could he possibly want from me, besides Kyubbi? I formed the word 'why,' with my mouth, but there was no volume.
"You don't want my brother showing up, do you?" His tone sounded too sarcastic that time, to fake. Of course, that was nearly impossible to catch, but it was different compared to his usual emotionless tone.
"Do you?" I managed to get that out normally, though I had tried hard to sound skeptical.
"I would rather he didn't." Itachi replied. "Not now." It kind of seemed like we were toying with each other, but for me it was more like trying to. "We must move, or he'll sense you out here."
I nodded, ignoring but not forgetting the now much smaller fear. I was more than willing to physically distance the Uchihas as much as possible.
To my surprise, he didn't push it. He was gone quicker than I could blink, and I was forced to follow him, something that no person should have to voluntarily do. Eventually he had to match my pace because I couldn't keep up with him, and that made my anxiety even worse.
"If you don't desire Sasuke, and you aren't here to drag me to the Akatsuki, what do you want?" It took way too much concentration for one sentence. I was hoping, praying, I could catch him- if one of those things really were his intentions. Not that I would be able to read it on his face.
"You're the closest to him, it's important you know." I attempted to stop, but he continued moving. He must have sensed we were being followed.
"Know what? Why?"
He didn't answer right away, like he was considering what to say. "If you tell Sasuke, and I find out, I'll kill him."
I swallowed, and tried to breathe. I could count on that, for sure, with the way Itachi treats Sasuke like a harmless puppy in battle. Then again, it could just be him messing with me.
"Wha-" I gasped, "What? Why now?"
"He's coming. Sasuke and someone else. I can't tell you everything."
Now every inch of me wanted to know, at least what he could tell me before we were caught. He had came with no threatening intentions, just to tell me something about Sasuke, and in the moment, I would have died to hear it, but it wasn't necessary.
"I did not want to destroy the Uchiha clan. I was ordered."
I retorted much too quickly, forgetting who I was talking to. "What are you talking about?! Who would have-"
"They're catching up. You're too slow. Whether you believe me or not, I'm not finished."
The last two words knocked sense into me. Itachi was not one to piss off. I wished I could run faster, because I'm sure he could. "Tell me."
"Stop trying to keep Sasuke from killing me."
I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came.
Itachi was behind me then, and he involuntarily stopped my running. It was too much to have the frightening man behind me, with my back vulnerable. It could have been slipping, but I caught the end of the branch I was last on with my foot before I could fall completely. I half leaped and half dropped to the ground, Itachi already gracefully on his feet. Sasuke and Sai- I assumed- must have caught up. Damn me and my slowness.
Stop trying to keep Sasuke from killing me.
I did not want to destroy the Uchiha clan, I was ordered.
Itachi had come to me- a member of the Akatsuki- and hadn't hurt me or captured me. Despite what had happened back at Orochimaru's, he clearly wasn't after Sasuke, but was trying to make him hate him. He'd come all the way here to tell me to stop trying to keep Sasuke from murdering him, like he wanted to die. He must have known I was trying to 'save' Sasuke, and by doing so, trying to 'stop' his revenge.
If Itachi wanted to be killed- By Sasuke- Then there had to be a reason for it. That much I could believe.
And If he was ORDERED to destroy the Uchiha clan, then really…
Itachi was an innocent man.
If I could believe that.
I was sure I was missing pieces of the puzzle. Like who ordered him to kill the Uchiha's, and why? Or why Sasuke couldn't know any of this. Obviously if he knew and believed this, he would -with much regret in life- stop trying to take revenge on Itachi, whom he thought was a psycho path who killed his family for power.
But he didn't want Sasuke to know, because he WANTED Sasuke to kill him.
I was suddenly horrified at the thought of Sasuke doing that, if Itachi was innocent, and Sasuke didn't know any better.
Sasuke and Sai were already there, I knew, but I was trying to ignore them. For some reason, Sasuke hadn't gone nuts over Itachi yet. I kept my eyes glued to him.
I had missed something Sasuke and Sai had done, and Itachi motioned towards them. "Go."
Then it was all I could do to throw myself- because I knew I was the only one who had a chance of stopping Sasuke- in front of Itachi before Sasuke could rip him apart, not that Itachi would let him anyway.
If Itachi truly was innocent-and even if he didn't need or WANT me to- I would protect him from Sasuke if he couldn't know the truth.
-End Flashback-
I wearily watched Sasuke's sleeping face for any sign of consciousness throughout my retelling. I didn't want him to hear what I was telling Sai. "I can't let Sasuke kill him. I'm not even sure of everything. Those two things were all he said."
Sai had been quiet throughout the entire story, but he answered now. "It seemed unrealistic to me, that someone would massacre not only their own, but their little brother's family for such a simple reason."
I nodded. Now I had to think up some way to stall Sasuke. Itachi threatened to kill him- though it was probably just to scare me - if I told him the truth.
The sun had risen more now, and the village would be 'waking up' normally, but I'm sure most of the villagers were already awake, thanks to the emergency lock in. Tsunade -if not Kakashi, Yamato, and Iruka- were probably having mental breakdowns concerning whether or not the village was safe and the intruder was gone, and where I was.
Besides all of this, I was still tired. Now that the threat was gone and Sasuke and everyone else was safe, the need for sleep got stronger. I'm sure my eyes were drooping horribly, and I could barely hold myself up.
"Sai?" I mumbled.
"Hm?"
"So long as Sasuke's out, we'll need to stay here. I'm going to sleep." It was probably the dumbest thing I had ever said to him, but I could care less. I would get to relax.
"Um, right." He answered, shaking his head. His grin was displayed halfway on his face. "I'll watch for you."
I guided Sasuke's head to the ground and curled up next to him. Sleeping with him was like sleeping with a normal pillow on a blistering hot night. I rolled away from him when I got too cold, and when the side I was on overheated, I could press back against his skin and cool off. Even in sleep, I was plagued by thoughts that all wondered the same thing.
What do I do to stop Sasuke when he wakes up?