Scroll 5: Open Your Eyes

Seeing Sakura's hair on the ground and being a witness to her beaten condition in the Forest of Death was something that Sasuke felt he would remember forever.

The way she had been kneeling, her swollen face, and the strands of long hair scattered about the floor had been startlingly similar to the way his childhood self had imagined Mai when she had cut her hair off to remove the lightning using ninja's advantage over her.

It felt to him like some sort of divine intervention, letting him know that he wasn't strong enough, not by a long shot, to do what he wanted to do and protect those he wanted to protect. So, when he heard from a certain careless jounin that Itachi was in town and was after Naruto, Sasuke resolved to immediately act and went after the blonde boy who had become something akin to his brother.

He didn't think of Mai other than quite ironically being thankful that she was on a mission and more thankful still that she would return soon, in time, he hoped, to be received with the news that the man who had hurt them was dead.

Mai, on the other hand, had just been coming back from an assassination mission and had already broken ways (for the sake of preserving one's identity, as per ANBU protocol) with the squad she had been placed on immediately after reporting their success to the Hokage.

When she heard the explosion, she felt down to her very bones that something was very wrong and decided to investigate. It was, quite frankly, just her luck that when she was without her mask and generally unprepared, she would meet with Itachi once again.

"Itachi!"

It hurt, when he ignored her, more than it did when she foolishly, recklessly attacked him directly and was slammed into the ground.

She hoped, though, somewhere in the back of her mind, that it hurt him as much when she feinted trying to sweep-kick his legs from under him and instead planted her foot solidly into his chest, drawing her fan as she rolled into a standing position, her expression lividly pale.

She had overcome, in their brief meeting, the part of her that simply froze up and could not move when she saw him, because that had been the first time and this moment in time was a different thing altogether.

When he melted into a number of crows, the analytical part of Mai acknowledged that she was utterly, hopelessly outclassed. The rest of her concurred, but her anger in that moment was so great that she fought anyway.

Seeing Itachi during her mission had wiped out any and all traces of that fervent though impossible hope that she had somehow kept kindling in her heart-the hope that Itachi was still her Itachi and not some monster that would slaughter his clan.

That foolishness was gone now.

Mai knew nothing of Naruto, Sasuke's teammate. Nothing, other than what she could glean of him from the picture shown to her by Kakashi. She recognized the boy, and she could see that the man she had once loved most in the world-and now hated in equal measure-was after him. The boy who, from what Kakashi told her, was like a brother to Sasuke.

She would not stand for it.

Itachi, obviously, was playing with her. Forcing her into genjutsu after genjutsu, and it seemed as if not matter how many times she released-genjutsu was her weakness, as it was in most unrealized Uchiha blood, dependent on their sharingan as they were in the field-that she had no chance of ever escaping.

In some dark, distant, desperate corner of her heart, though, she wished that the man she was fighting-or, attempting to fight-would say something. Anything.

"Itachi!"

The voice that had called out her opponent's name was not her own. Mai, doing her utmost to keep focused on the battle she was attempting to fight, nearly failed to block an incoming blow in the worst form of surprise. The last person on earth she wanted to see in that particular moment had arrived.

Sasuke.

When the raven-haired boy charged, Mai swung her fan open in a way that would dig its sharpened blades into the back of Itachi's knee. She elbowed him in the face, or tried to, at least, and was gratified to be set free of the chokehold of his arm around her neck.

It wasn't until after she'd stumbled forward, fighting back a brief cough and recovering herself that she realized, lividly pale, that the Itachi that was slamming Sasuke into the ground was the real one. Because she cut him and he bled.

When Itachi drove his foot into Sasuke's ribs and sent him flying, something in Mai snapped and she stopped, overwhelmed by a cold and frigid fury.

"Don't you dare. Don't you dare-"

Anything else she might have said died in her mouth as she renewed her assault on Itachi with a violence beyond that of her initial attack. She swung her fan at him again and lit up the sky with her Uchiha affinity for fire.

And there was a flicker, a very slight flicker, of something in her eyes.

To say that anyone really, truly knew what happened between them in the moment that Itachi dodged the flames of her jutsu and seemingly materialized behind her, knife to her throat, was an utter lie.

It all happened so quickly that it seemed as if he were standing there, holding her, when in reality she used her steel and flint wrist guards to block his kunai and knock it away from herself, stomping viciously on his foot in an attempt to get him to let go of her.

It didn't work, and in the same movement he used to rescue his foot he swept her off her feet (literally) and twisted her wrist behind her back, making her drop her fan.

In retaliation Mai hit him in the face with the curve of her palm and was rewarded rather unjustly by Itachi grabbing said hand and using it to force her arm around her throat, completely subduing her. Mai stilled herself for a moment, knowing she was entirely at his mercy, and closed her eyes.

Long ago, she would have willingly rested in his strong arms. Not anymore.

With a Herculean effort, her eyes cold as she snapped them open, Mai threw Itachi over her, intending to slam him into the floor and thus free herself.

It worked, to a certain extent, except that Itachi was much too skilled to be truly taken by surprise and instead rather harmlessly landed on his feet, whirling about with his hands flying into signs so that when Mai swung her freshly recovered fan at him, he disappeared into another scattering of crows and was left untouched by the wind chakra that otherwise would have left him in ribbons.

Mai was not yet the fighter she had been, though, and she kept awareness of her chakra levels as she tried to release herself from whatever genjutsu she had been put under and swung her fan in a violent arc again, causing a blast of concentrated wind chakra to "clear" the air around her so that she wouldn't be taken by nasty surprise upon returning to reality.

She needn't have bothered, because if anyone knew her well enough to know that she would take such a precaution, it was Itachi Uchiha.

After what had seemed like a shatteringly long interpretation of forever, he said the first word that had been directed at her since the night he-almost-killed her.

In some savagely unfair way, Mai felt a little shudder of, of something go through her when it truly hit her that the first word he said to her after that night was her name.

"Mai."

It was no question, it was a statement. Not radiating surprise in the least. Mai considered it in a flicker of thought. Perhaps he had recognized her, then? That last time? He always had been good at masking his thoughts, although once upon a time Mai had been rather apt at reading them. Either way, though, he had known she was alive.

She locked eyes with him.

"Itachi."

They were still for just a moment. Just one.

Mai lifted her fan.

"No more illusions, Itachi."

He acquiesced with a slight inclining of his head.

"As you wish."

There was something in his voice that made Mai pause and let through softly parted lips a careless, almost compliant sigh. She knew, that regardless of what she wanted to feel and what she should feel, she would remember those words in the off chance that she survived.

Just for a single moment, though, they were still. And then…

They lunged.

It was not with a ferocity or hateful rage that Mai attacked Itachi, and it was not with a vicious or particularly apparent loathing that Itachi came at her. Really, it was with the cool detachedness of strangers engaging in a sparring session.

Itachi was true to his word and did not put her under any more genjutsu.

They dueled.

"Mai! Mai!"

There were no words to describe, exactly, what it was that Sasuke felt in the moment that he saw his brother slam Mai-his Mai, now, not Itachi's-into the ground, but it gave him whatever it was that he had apparently been lacking because he stood up and went at his brother again.

This was a battle of an entirely different kind.

Sasuke was so full of loathing it could be felt, it was palpable in the air, and Mai, head spinning as she tried to will herself to her feet, felt sick at the intensity of it.

"Sasuke, don't-"

She didn't know what it was that she didn't want Sasuke to do, only that every fiber of her being was dead set against it. Naturally, he did it anyway.

"ITACHI!"

He blew a huge fireball at his brother, launching innumerable kunai knives and using them as an opening by which to get into the sort of range necessary for close combat. He tried to get in a sweep kick but Mai never knew if it connected or not because she was suddenly hauled to her feet and then some, being dangled a few inches above the floor.

"So you're the one."

Hoshigaki Kisame. Whatever he meant by that, though, Mai did not know. All she knew was that she was in serious trouble. Since both her hands were free, she used them to grab onto his and used his arm as a bar from which she propelled herself into a kick (aiming for his face) and flipped backwards out of his grip in a violent, if neat, motion.

Kisame grinned, recognizing the style of the move, if not the move itself.

"You're that ANBU. The one from near Mist."

Mai didn't dwell on whatever it was that he meant because quite frankly, she didn't have time. He could kill her. He probably would kill her. While she filed the comment away for later analysis, if necessary, a habit ingrained in her by years of experience with ANBU, she didn't pay it any heed then. All that mattered was survival. All that mattered was Sasuke.

She repeated it to herself like a mantra of sorts, in time with her pounding heart.

It helped her focus. Calm. No, not calm. It sharpened her, made her more formidable, like taking a blade to a grindstone. She was ready, now. For whatever he might do. As ready as she would ever be, circumstances given.

It was a shame that all of her mental prepping was thrown out the figurative window when he opened his mouth, grinning.

"I was so disappointed when I missed meeting you."

What?

Of all things, she certainly hadn't expected that. What…what was that supposed…

"Hoshigaki Kisame."

His lips pulled back in a feral grin and he easily hefted the incredibly cumbersome looking sword he had off his back.

"It's a shame I'm going to kill you."

Somehow, Kisame's superficially friendly attitude-layered over a killing intent Mai hadn't felt the likes of in years-brought her down to earth again, out of the storm of her thoughts. Mai shrugged, finding her center of gravity as he had taught her.

"It's a shame I have to die."

The blue man was bewildered for a second before bursting into uproarious laughter.

"That it is."

And that was it. There was no more time for banter, there was simply the fight. Which, as with her fight against Itachi, consisted mainly of him toying with her. Also, Mai thought grimly, she didn't need to look over at Sasuke to know that he was getting his ass kicked. She had to do something. Anything. She-

She ducked to avoid being hit by that overly large sword and danced back, her fan in its closed melee position. Like almost all of her attempts at anything, though, it was a worthless action because she was suddenly hit from behind by that same sword. The blue man she had dodged grinned at her and disappeared with a splash of water.

It hit her with a force unbelievable and when it sent her flying with presumably several cracked, if not outright broken, ribs, Mai felt as if she were suddenly dead on her feet.

The damned sword had siphoned her chakra.

"Figured it out, have you?"

Kisame was grinning at her, his sword swung easily over his shoulder. Mai shrugged, more preoccupied with calculating the amount of chakra she had left and determining whatever strategy would be able to best employ its use.

"Your sword ate my chakra."

She said it flatly, trying to buy herself some time, but she was feeling a little dizzy and she had a sneaking suspicion that she was in serious medical trouble because of those ribs. She couldn't breathe. Kisame hefted his sword in one hand and gave her a fiercely anticipative grin as if to say goodbye and came at her again.

She barely managed to disappear in a whirlwind of leaves in time, and when she reappeared, it was breathless, wiping at her mouth, with several unfortunately easily crossed feet of ground between her and her opponent.

"Shit. I-

Mai closed her eyes firmly, willing herself into control. Body over mind. Body over mind. At this rate, she was more likely to simply fall dead to the floor from chakra depletion than she was to be killed by Kisame Hoshigaki.

"Kisame. We're leaving."

In her half-delirious state, Mai shuddered at the sound of his voice. Somewhere, Kisame rested his sword on the ground, his expression one of distaste and vague petulance.

"Why? I'm having fun."

Mai ignored both of them, forgetting about Itachi other than the dim awareness of his presence that their past had fostered within her. Where was Sasuke? She didn't know what she would do, if Sasuke was-

"We're done."

Kisame Hoshigaki was a good-natured man, surprising, perhaps, for one known as such a ruthless, aggressive S-rank criminal, but he was no one but himself. He chuckled a little at Itachi's insistence-he respected the man, of course, but it was a little funny to see someone younger than him take control of things-and grinned an affirmative rather easily at him.

"What are we waiting for, then?"

He didn't spare a glance back at Mai, as she rather deliriously tried to scramble to her feet, feeling as if she were moving in slow motion, and left. Wherever he was going, no one knew, but Mai thought with a sinking spirit that his departure boded ill for the village. Itachi glanced unaffectedly at the destruction he and his teammate had caused.

"Hn."

But Mai couldn't even be bothered to keep an eye on him. Her mind was consumed with only one thought-Sasuke. Subconsciously, she had reached the point where she decided that Itachi simply wasn't worth her time. He wasn't worth her energy, he wasn't worth her hate, and he certainly wasn't worth her pain.

Of course, it was an entirely different matter altogether, whether she would remember that little, seemingly insignificant thought later on, if she lived. When she saw Sasuke, all thoughts were wiped from her mind and she was nearly sick.

"Sasuke. Sasuke."

He was lying flat on his back, his arms both at awkward angles, his torso convulsing. His eyes were closed, not as if from pain, but as if in sleep, and his expression was one of acute terror. It was disturbing to see him thrash around, not screaming, not shouting, not saying anything at all. Mai knew exactly what it was. She herself had experienced it. It was a parting gift, after all.

In the state she was in-it was only through her insistence on staying awake that she managed to simply not faint of exhaustion-she didn't really think about what she was doing other than willing her body to move, inch by inch and step by step towards the man she now hated more than any in the world. It was nothing short of a miracle that she was still standing, although it was more as if something was making her move. There was another flicker of that self-same something in her eyes again.

"Itachi."

The man in question stopped unbearably slowly before tilting his head so that he could see her advancing in his peripheral vision. Very quietly, not giving any indication that he knew precisely what was happening to her, he turned his head completely away from her and simply stood for a minute, eyes closed, face tilted just to the sky, entirely still.

Sasuke had stopped thrashing.

"Itachi…"

To say that hearing Mai say his name like that was a shock was an understatement at best, but he didn't visibly react. Kisame had taken too much chakra, and without looking Itachi knew that whatever wound she had received to the back of the head from the hilt of Samehada earlier was dangerous. She wasn't in her right mind already, and the exhaustion didn't help.

Without warning, she lunged at him with a hairpin, staggering, really, and reeling from the sheer intensity of how disoriented she was. Her eyes flickered and before she had a chance to say anything, Itachi knocked the hairpin out of her hand, looking expressionlessly away.

"You don't have enough chakra, foolish woman. You'll die."

She blinked sluggishly at him, as if asking him why, and then everything was gone.

Open Your Eyes/End.