Chapter Four, How long is this?
I woke up, disoriented and confused, in a hospital bed. Everything was sore and it hurt to move. I almost tried to sit up, but was restrained by bandages and pulled down by severe pain all through my abdomen. I moaned loudly and involuntarily. A nurse promptly came into the room.
"Don't try to move too much, you were badly injured," She said in a soothing voice. "Here, let me help you. I'm just going to inject some painkiller. Try not to move, this will feel like a small prick."
I laughed at her. A small prick was nothing to the aches and pains I was becoming aware of, as my body awakened fully. She stared at me, slightly fearful, but still gave me the shot. I felt nothing when she pierced my skin with the metal prick.
"I'll be back in a few minutes," she said in a wary voice.
I realized I hadn't said a word back to her, just laughed like I was insane. She probably thought I was crazy, and was going to get people to take me away in straight jacket.
Minutes later, the nurse returned, escorting two anbu black ops into my room. I had a wild thought that they knew about me aiding Itachi in the forest and were going to arrest me, or something like that.. I looked more carefully at them. They looked almost exactly alike, except for the subtle differences that identified them as a man and a woman.
"We have some questions to ask you," the woman said in a suspicious voice, which she tried to pass off as kind and friendly.
"What kinds of questions?" I asked, flaunting my sarcastic tone.
"Be gentle, she is probably suffering some kind of trauma. She looks bad now, but you should have seen what she looked like before," the nurse whispered to the anbu, foolishly believing that I couldn't hear her.
I scowled viciously at them. I had wanted to lay down and sleep, but instead a pair of black ops had come in to interrogate me. I felt that I had a right to my anger. The nurse lifted me gently into a wheelchair. I would have fought her, but I couldn't really move while mummified in bandages. Instead I sighed as loud as I could. Maybe if I was annoying enough, they'd leave me to rot in the hospital bed, at least I could sleep that way.
The black ops seemed to have forgotten to interrogate me as they pushed me out the front of the hospital.
"Where was the fight Sasuke mentioned?" the man asked me now. Okay, maybe they hadn't forgotten.
I ignored his question, I was good at that. "How is Sasuke?" I asked, genuinely curious.
"He is awake, but not coherent.." the woman replied.
"Oh," I breathed the word. Great, this was just great.
"Lead us to the area of the battle.." the man insisted. Apparently, he had a longer attention span than the woman. That could be a problem..
I lead them as best as I could in a wheelchair through the treacherous forest floor. As we came closer to what I believed to be the scene of the crime, a pungent smell assaulted my nostrils. Like I hadn't suffered enough already.
The man crouched and signed something to his female partner. Then he disappeared into the dense shrubbery. The woman watched me without mercy, scrutinizing every breath I took. I took back what I thought about her short attention span. Then he came back. It startled me when I turned and the black ops was standing beside me. Those uniforms probably invoked more fear than the ninja themselves.
"There's a body just a few yards away. It has been mutilated and desecrated beyond recognition, but I think I can guess," he said solemnly.
"Take us there," the woman commanded. Jeesh, I didn't want to get on her bad side. Then I began to consider what he said. Obliviously, Itachi had done his job, and done it well. At least I think.
The woman pushed the wheelchair gingerly, I could bet my life on the fact that she didn't like me. The smell became stronger and harder to bear as we came closer. It was like nothing I had ever smelled before; disgusting, stomach turning, repulsive, the words didn't even hit the tip of the iceberg. The smell was so thick in the air it began to gag all of us. The woman anbu pulled out a couple of nose plugs. Gratefully I accepted the one she offered me. Maybe she wasn't so bad after all.
As we pushed past a pair of lichen covered trees, I caught sight of the body. At first, terror seized me, Itachi's Akatsuki cloak was shredded and strewn across the ground. This time my stomach lurched not from the smell, but what I was seeing. We came closer and I could see that decay had been accelerated by the heat of the sun and exposure to the elements. Sickening thoughts told me that somehow Oboro had survived and killed Itachi when he came back to rig the body. But the fears were quieted when I recognized a stray piece of Oboro's shroud. Itachi had done his job well, a little too well if you ask me. The anbu passed the dirt brown cloth off as a piece of the Akatsuki uniform that was white underneath the cloak. Obliviously, to them at least, the cloth had only been dirtied by the forest surroundings. Our plan proceeded perfectly, as the anbu assumed the body was that of Itachi Uchiha.
They asked me no more questions and I was taken back to the hospital in silence. After that, everyone assumed that Sasuke had killed Itachi. There was no mention of Oboro. Everything went smoothly and according to plan. I only had to make sure the sharingun had correctly altered Sasuke's memories.
The rumors of the tragic end to the murderer of the Uchiha clan had spread almost has quickly, as the medical nin had healed Sasuke. I had to hand it to the doctors at Konoha, they knew what were doing. I decided to pop in and check the effect of the sharingun while the rest of team seven visited.
When I walked toward his room, I saw the door propped open. I peeked into the doorway unnoticed. Naruto stood next to the bed, already picking a fight with Sasuke, it seemed. Sakura sat on the edge of the bed, scolding Naruto and cooing over Sasuke. Meanwhile, Sasuke stared at them blankly. I almost fell flat on my face from shock. There wasn't an ounce of malice in his expression. I could now easily connect him to the photo Itachi had given me. Is this why he had given it to me? If so, how did he know it would end out like this? I felt like the biggest fool ever.
Sasuke suddenly met my eyes, and again, it surprised me to see an innocent curiosity in his eyes. He stared at me, puzzled. I felt his eyes examining the few bandages left on my face and ribs; I was almost completely healed now. I stared back with one eyebrow raised, and took to leaning in the door frame. Eventually, Sakura and Naruto followed Sasuke's gaze to see me casually leaning on the frame of the door. Team seven gazed at me in a quizzical manner.
"Rain ninja aren't as good as you bargained, eh?" I said and chuckled a little.
As expected, all three stared back, even more confused than before. It relieved me to see that Sasuke was just as clueless as the rest.
"Well, I guess this is it. I doubt I'll see you around, so uh, bye…"I said dismissively.
" Um, yes. I wish you luck on your journey back to the Mist Village," Sakura replied, gaining her courage through her manners.
"You'll see me around, so don't you worry!" Naruto cried. Did he never stop going on about how he was going to be a famous hokage?
I waited curiously for Sasuke's answer. He seemed changed by the fact that he thought Itachi to be dead. Maybe Sasuke could become a better person. The hope was dim, but still there, as I watched his eyes patiently.
"Bye," Sasuke said, not even bothering to try to be polite, or anything nice like that. The corner of my plastered smile twitched down toward my chin.
I turned and waved in a light hearted fashion, but all the while I was cursing myself for my stupidity. Maybe some people can change, but Sasuke wasn't one of them.
"Why was she talking about rain ninja?" Sasuke sneered when he thought I was out of earshot.
Why that little -!! I couldn't stand him. I stormed out of the hospital, fuming over my idiotic hopefulness. I would have gone in there and made sure he wouldn't be leaving to hospital for a couple of weeks, but I had other, better, things to do.
I went straight to the place where we had all battled. Itachi was there waiting for me.
"You're slow," he said calmly. Was this his version of impatience?
I walked up to him with my hands behind my back and my head turned skyward. "Better late than never," I commented, glancing at him from the corner of my eye. I was afraid to look directly at him, I might end up being unable to tear my eyes away.
We briefly met each other's gaze, and then removed our forehead protectors together. Posing as civilians, we hired a team of genin ninja to escort us to the Mist Village. This part was my idea. I suggested we escape the Mist Village, pretending to be a married couple. I mentioned married for my own reasons, but to my surprise, he didn't argue the point at all or ask about it, just agreed. Maybe it was imagination, but hmm.. I have my own guesses about why he didn't oppose the idea! My heart skipped a beat as thought about the things to come.
We arrived to meet the ninja team right on time. As we walked up to them, the blonde turned and gazed at me sullenly. Their sensei waved and turned the rest of the team's attention to us.
"This is Ino, and here are Shikamaru and Chouji. I am Asuma," he said in a warm tone, pointing at each in turn.
I smiled back with the same exuberant warmth and Itachi nodded his head. We set off immediately. It was a only a couple of days before we reached the Mist Village, and the trip there was uneventful.
The last connection we had with Konoha was as we waved, or more correctly I waved and Itachi nodded, to the team of ninja who had escorted us the Mist Village. I remember turning to face the somehow new, but old world of the Mist Village, grasping Itachi's hand. I smiled so wide that my face should have cracked, when he let me cling to his hand. I wonder if I hurt his hand, gripping it so tightly..
Author's Note!!
I really hope you enjoyed this story. It was originally a romance, but I didn't want it to be gushy or boring. So I added some action. Key word there was, 'some.' But I still found my own story boring and uncaptivating. Hence, more action. It has become and action packed story, with a touch of romance. But whatever, if it keeps me reading when I already know what's going to happen, this has to be at least mildly interesting, right?!
I am expecting people to not appreciate my portrayal of the characters. This is because I originally wrote this as four pages with little knowledge about the characters I was using. I doubt fan girls or die-hard haters of Sasuke will like how I used him here, but I was only attempting to find a middle ground and make my storyline appealing. Please, don't injure me!! I have always had a hard time portraying Itachi, so his role in this story kind of sucks and does him no justice at all. The rain ninja was right out of the anime also, but combined with the demon brothers, fighting-style wise. Naruto, Sakura, Kakashi, the anbu black ops, Asuma, Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji also played minor roles. I hope no one who likes these characters thinks I misused them character wise in this fan fic. I honestly tried. The main character was one of my first spin off characters of Naruto. I tried to make her seem a worthy opponent for a strong ninja like Oboro, but not an almighty character either. I wanted people to see that she was indeed smart, but Itachi, of course, easily outwits her at every turn. I tried to make her look good, so that I could use her to indicate the strength of the other characters, but it was hard when for the storylines sake, she had to beaten up again and again. She also has a sarcastically humorous side that I tried to manipulate to lighten up some parts of this fan fic.
About the sharingun, I don't know if I even spelled it right in this story. As for the part about it altering Sasuke's memory, I honestly have no idea if that's actually possible. I don't know everything about the sharingun, so I used my imagination. Yeah that weird thing that nobody talks about anymore, an imagination. Please don't laugh.
For the mean people who got stuck on my character's physical description in the first sentence, I didn't try to make her asian. I thought the black hair was cool looking in my head, and made her darker, so she was more fitting for Itachi as a partner. Now PLEASE, get on with your life and stop trying to accuse me!!! I'm only an idiot. I hope this story was accurate to the anime and was enjoyable. I also disclaim all characters, except for the unnamed main character, who uses the clothes only. They are Mamashi Kishimoto's not mine. Enjoy again if you're bored.