Chapter Three!! Yeah!!
I woke up bright and early. Even after giving myself a concussion and staying up for several days in a row, I still could not manage to sleep in. I sighed inwardly, I was on a subconscious mission to destroy myself. My body was stiff and rigid after spending the night pretezeled, upside down, and diagonal in my bed. I rolled lazily onto the floor and the sheets heaped on top of me. Stupid thoughts of Itachi and me defeating all the ninja in Konoha and spending our lives together fizzled in the back of my mind. I untangled myself slowly from the sheets and then realized for the second time, the importance of yesterday's spy work. I dressed and ate hurriedly. I had to make sure Itachi got my warning from last night. I knew it was probably pointless, but so was every other endeavor I took on lately, so did it really matter?
I made it to Konoha's outskirts and into the forest in record time. I moved quickly and stealthily through the canopy, not that this was anything new to me. The only difference was that I was by myself. If I got lost, there was no hope of getting back out of this forest. I had no way to mark any kind of path because all the trees still looked the same to me. I should have been able to differentiate them by now, but I had always been watching Sasuke here.
I checked and rechecked clearings and around streams. I had no other ideas of where to look.. I continued on, my search becoming more frantic as more time passed. I hadn't the slightest idea where Itachi was, or how to find him. For all I knew, Sasuke and Oboro had already found him. If that was true, I needed to find him now so I could somehow aid him. I contemplated that thought for a moment. How exactly could I help him if I was weaker than him? I was probably way in over my head, but I was unable to give up now.
My heart wrenched at the thought of any harm coming to Itachi. Wow, this was what it was like to be insane. No one in their right mind would be doing what I was doing, but obliviously I wasn't in my right mind.
Eventually I began to tire myself out. I never realized how much worry and exercise took out of a person, but now I was coming to a full understanding. I sat on a branch where it met the trunk of the tree. I was breathing hard and beginning to sweat. I had a small sack of food with me, so I figured now was the time eat. The sun was high, and I guessed it to be a little after noon. I balanced myself on the limb and started gnawing on a kohakumochi. The bean filled sweets probably weren't the best thing to eat, but one had to agree that they were portable, practical, and an overall convenience.
The food was gone quickly, and I rested there as my stomach turned to stone with dread. I knew that I was sensing something bad. Not the way a physic senses, but like an animal's feral instincts. My overactive imagination conjured up gruesome pictures of what they could do to Itachi if I didn't find him soon. I stood shakily, trying to stave off my coming tears.
A hand clasped my mouth shut, and an arm wrapped around my shoulders, as I was grabbed from behind. I was pulled in to the gargantuan truck of the tree, while the person behind me restrained my futile attempts at freedom. I felt their breath in my ear and their hair sweep the side of my face, causing an unpleasant tingling to sweep through me.
"Don't move, make no noise.." I instantly recognized the low smooth voice of Itachi Uchiha.
Weirdly, I felt no more fear. Instead I became calm. The saying 'Don't call us, we'll call you,' suddenly had new meaning. I relaxed and leaned into him and the tree. Patiently, we waited for something. Something, I didn't know, but clearly, Itachi knew.
Minutes passed, and I sensed no danger. I didn't understand.. Why was he so tense? Snatching young girls from behind didn't seem to be a habit of Itachi's. At least, as far I knew, but then again.. What did I know? His grip on me slackened, but he didn't let go. I squirmed a little and turned to face him.
He was watching the surrounding forest with anxiety. This disturbed me. What did someone as strong and skilled as him need to fear?
"Itach-?" I started and he clamped my mouth shut.
Something disturbed the leaves around us. I looked to my left, the direction of the noise. Itachi pulled me into himself and leapt backwards. Surprised, I turned my head to see a metal claw reaching for me. My eyes widened in fright. It came close enough to cut my fly away pieces of hair into bangs. I felt it graze my nose, and then the warm trickle of blood down my face.
The claw banged against the tree loudly and stuck itself into the sinewy layers of bark, becoming trapped. I watched it dig deeper into the innocent flesh of the tree, and then rip itself free, horrorified. It was that moment, that I realized the claw belonged to Oboro. My stomach lurched with a resonating fear, but it quickly became anger. I pushed free of Itachi's arms and threw a handful of shruiken in Oboro's general direction..
I came running full speed and prepared another attack. He dodged the first, as I planned, and I threw my next serving of sebon when he presented an opening. The 'opening' was a trap. Oboro moved aside clumsily and swung the back of the claw, aiming for the side of my head.
I ducked and threw fistfuls of shruiken, then parried to the side. With his back turned to me, he dodged all my attacks. Oboro spun around and stared into my eyes with a blood lust like none I had ever known before. Frantically, I reached for the large shruiken on my back. I watched, stumbling backwards in fear, as he rushed at me still holding my eyes, fist raised. Just as my hand connected with the hole in the center, by which I grasped the weapon, his hand connected with the side of my face. My head spun with the force of the blow. The arm reaching behind me looped over the point of the shruiken. When he hit me, my hand automatically reached farther towards the center of it, and the sharp end gouged itself into my forearm. Pain radiated simultaneously from my head and arm.
Ignoring the waves of pain, I still managed to throw the large shruiken. It missed for the most part, but it shaved his ribs. The wound may have been shallow, but even so, it would shed plenty of blood. Oboro faltered, trying to regain himself. I took my chance to look around me. I saw behind me on the ground, Itachi and Sasuke. Sasuke threw blow after blow, but Itachi moved deliberately and smoothly, each strike missing by miles. I was getting creamed over here while Itachi played a lazy game of dodge ball. What had I been thinking? I was only in the way here. It was pointless to risk my life for someone who didn't need it, but here I was.
I stopped gaping at the action below me, just in time to see the gleaming metal of Oboro's arm claw reaching for my ribs. I slid as gracefully as one can out of the strike's range, but the sweeping attack was only a diversion to set up for a kick. I was unable move in time. His foot slammed into my collar bone and I felt it begin to break. Fortunately for me, he used too much power in the kick and was thrown off balance. I blindly threw kunai knives to where I thought him to be.
He struggled to evade my attack, but was successful. He was still tripping over himself from the overpowered kick and I took my opportunity to try to fill him with sebon and shruiken. Even stumbling and beat down as he was, hardly any of my weapons hit him. I would guess at best, that about half of my sebon hit non-vital areas, and maybe three or four shruiken struck him.
Exhausted after the multiple blows I had taken, I fumbled over my own feet and slumped against the side of a tree. In the heat of battle, I hadn't even realized we had come to the ground. I knew it wasn't over and tired desperately to pull myself up. I was only half-standing when Oboro recovered and came at me again.
I had barely raised my head, when I saw him only feet away. My reactions had slowed greatly, and I stood watching his foot come at me, imagining my evasion of it. But no matter how hard I pictured it, my body never moved. His foot thrust into my chest and knocked the wind out of me. Fear of death does funny things to people, one moment I was sure that I couldn't go on, the next I battling to remove the crushing force of his kick from my ailing body. Instead of pulling back and beating me to no end, he pinned me to the tree, with his foot digging ever deeper into my lungs. I was seeing spots before my eyes due to lack of oxygen. My sarcastic side wondered why most of the spots were blue and purple… Interesting. It was something to think about. If I lived.
"Now!" I heard Sasuke cry somewhere past Oboro.
What was that supposed to mean?! I didn't have much time to ponder over it because Oboro rammed his other foot into me and used my abused torso to boost his speed. I tasted blood and felt the air shoved from my body.
I fell forward to my knees and clutched my stomach, gasping in desperation for air. Any normal being would have tried to breathe before looking up, but not me. My vision was blurred, but even so, I could still make out the three figures before my eyes. Itachi, Sasuke, and Oboro.. Itachi stood in between the two, calmly surveying them. Sasuke and Oboro rushed at him full speed from both sides. Oboro with his metal arm and Sasuke with a kunai knife. My heart was in my throat and I tried to crawl towards the action, like an idiot. Instead I fell completely on my face and pinned my arms partially underneath my own body. At the last second, just before I squeezed my eyes shut to block out what I felt sure was coming, Itachi stepped back. Both attacks missed. Sasuke tried to redirect his attack, but it never even came close. Oboro continued on, unable to stop his momentum. Sasuke raised his eyes in time to see it, but wasn't fast enough to escape it completely.
As Oboro passed him, the claw grazed Sasuke's throat. I instantly recognized the spot of the wound from the medical classes I had taken, so that I could use sebon effectively. The coronary artery. To my horror, blood began to pour from the wound. Itachi moved faster than the human eye could track and pressed his hand to the shallow, but deadly cut, trying to slow the bleeding. Sasuke, somehow still consciencous, fought Itachi's hold. Without hesitation, Itachi used his sharingun to swiftly knock Sasuke unconsciencous , My blood became cold in my veins. Not for Sasuke, or out of surprise, but from what I saw behind them.
Oboro skidded to halt and turned ominously toward them. My heart thudded as I saw him smile, much like a carnivore would at its innocent prey. With a twisted expression on his face he came in for another try. What kind of person threw away their comrade's life like that and took joy in attacking someone trying to help another? Anger and an overwhelming sense of revulsion took over me. Somehow, I found the energy to stand. I ran faster than I had ever before toward him, all my anger building. Without thinking, I dove low to the ground, grasping the kunai knife Sasuke had dropped. Time seemed to slow, and I leapt up over Sasuke and Itachi. I elbowed Oboro over the head and watched the force ripple through his body. Before he even hit the ground, I plunged the kunai into the base of his neck. I felt it dig between the vertebrae and the piercing of his spinal cord through the handle of the weapon. Oboro fell, dead, before he even hit the ground.
I stood over his carcass, disbelieving of what I had just witnessed myself do. He had died so easily and quickly. I didn't feel any different. I had never killed anyone before now, but I felt that I had done the right thing.
"Do you have any medical supplies?" I heard Itachi's voice from behind me.
I turned to face him as he concentrated on keeping pressure on the bleeding. I had no understanding of why he was saving Sasuke, but I wasn't about to refuse to help. I wrinkled my brow in thought. I didn't have any with me, but there had to be something I could do. Then I remembered the gauze I used to keep the weapon holsters from chafing my skin. All my weapons had been used up, and all the holsters were currently empty.
" I have an idea, give me a second.." I said pushing up my sleeves to reveal the numerous vacant holsters.
I rapidly pulled them off and carefully stripped away the precious gauze. The job was pain staking, but had to be done quickly. As I did so, I wondered why he was saving Sasuke when he had killed his clan. After a few moments I had enough gauze to wrap his neck wound. Sasuke's blood was all over Itachi's hands and both of their clothes. Quickly as I could, I wrapped the gauze tightly as Itachi moved his hands away. The gauze did little, Sasuke was in serious need of medical help.
My unruly temper flared as remembered what Sasuke had been trying to do to the person watching over him currently. I wanted to leave him there, but Itachi had other ideas.
" I'll take you both into Konoha, but you'll have to walk into the hospital carrying Sasuke yourself. I can make it look like it was me who was killed, and the sharingun will alter Sasuke's memories," Itachi said. It was hard to believe he came up with all that on a whim, but that was the beginning of our master plan to get out of Konoha.
I jealously limped behind Itachi as he carried Sasuke to the more secluded side of the hospital. I would have given just about anything to be carried by Itachi to the hospital, but it just wasn't possible. Sasuke was unconscious, so he had no way to walk to the hospital, and Itachi could only carry one overweight casualty at once.
Finally, we stood at the side of the towering hospital. Itachi carefully handed me Sasuke, and I cringed under the added weight my already worn body, had to carry. Slowly, I made my way to front of the hospital and Itachi disappeared, entrusting that I wouldn't lash out in a crazy killing spree, and make his little brother my first victim.
The thought was actually quite tempting, but I had no energy to carry it out. All the adrenaline wore off, and I collapsed, cradling Sasuke as far from my body as possible. Nurses and doctors saw us through the windows, and they rushed out to take Sasuke from me and carry us in on stretchers. They took us both immediately to the emergency areas. I passed out as I was carried inside, another new experience. It was odd to close my eyes and spiral down into the deep abyss of darkness behind my eyelids.
OOOH!! The climax, the best part has happened.. This is where I get bored and stop reading.. Don't be like me! Read the next chapter! But first.. Give me reviews!! AUGH!