Chapter 10
A kick in the ribs woke her up, making her hiss in pain. She slowly blinked her eyes open and stared at the figure that at first seemed too hazy to recognize, but as her eyes got used to the light Yuuko recognized the man. And she glared at him.
"Sharkie."
She received another sharp kick, "Wrong, try again."
"Kisama? ...Ow!" She rubbed at her ribs after the third kick and growled at the man.
"Wrong again."
"...Kisame, I need her unharmed."
They both turned to Itachi who had now entered the room as well.
Wait, room?
Yuuko looked around her and realized that yes, she was in a room. Quite a nice room actually, with a king sized bed, a huge wardrobe (for which she had nothing to fill it with), a desk and what surprised her the most was the huge window with a view to what she presumed to be the training grounds. As she took a closer look, she saw that there were explosion scrolls, which would go off when touched or moved in anyway, holding the window closed.
Figures.
Funny that there was such a huge bed... and she was lying on the floor.
"You don't need her now. Broken ribs will heal in a few months." And another kick at her ribs. This was getting quite annoying. Yuuko tried to sit up better, or maybe even to stand up, but was unsuccessful as her body was still a little sluggish and numb.
"...Kisame." Itachi needn't say any threats, or even look at the man he was threatening. People just knew that they were on dangerous ground by his aura. And the way the air thickened. Quite wicked actually. Yuuko had always wanted to do that.
Sharkie moved away from her a little, sighing, "Fine, fine. You're lucky you're useful, brat."
She chuckled dryly, "Yeah, lucky. Anyone want to explain where the hell am I? And what am I going to do here?"
"...You're going to train at the Akatsuki compound."
She looked at Itachi oddly, "So basically you're going to teach me the stuff you want me to teach Sasuke? You're... weird."
Kisame snorted, "Glad I'm not the only one who thinks that."
"I mean honestly, couldn't you not murder the Uchihas? Then you'd have all the time in the world to teach Sasuke."
"...I have my reasons."
Yuuko tested her arms by pushing herself to a sitting position and was happy when they didn't shake, meaning she was ready to stand up. She rose with a slight swagger before gaining balance and walking over to the bed, where she sat down on the soft mattress.
"And those reasons are...?"
She didn't get an answer and she hadn't expected one. Itachi was one to never share information without there being some kind of a purpose.
"Anyone know what time it is?"
"Five o'clock."
"Thanks, Sharkie."
He took a menacing step towards her, but one look from Itachi stopped him. Kisame grumbled something about 'annoying little girls' while leaving the room.
"So what am I supposed to do today?"
"...Rest. We will start training tomorrow."
"What fun. Any chance of getting something to eat?"
"...I'll have Deidara bring you food and anything else you might need."
Yuuko stared at the man... no at the monsterin horror, "You wouldn't! Not him!"
If Itachi was the kind of person to use facial expressions, she knew he would smirk at her. As it is, he didn't. But there was a suspiciously odd glint in his eyes, when he glanced at her just before leaving. Yuuko huffed and threw herself on the bed.
Damn, this feels nice. She swept her hands across the silk sheets and sighed, wishing Ketricken were here to feel this. She shut her eyes and imagined what her friend might say.
"Fuck yeah!"
She wouldn't cry anymore. No, Ketricken hated crybabies. And her goal now was to live through this Akatsuki period and to make her friend (who she was sure was watching her at this very moment from somewhere above) proud.
She looked at the ceiling and smiled sadly, picturing Ketricken's face telling her to move on.
I miss you already.
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Yuuko heard three knocks on the door and cringed before taking a deep breath and opening the door, facing her worst nightmare.
"Why it's been too long, Yuu-"
She quickly snatched the tray from his hands and shut the door with her leg, quickly moving for her desk. The door slammed open behind her and the angry blond entered her room.
"That wasn't nice Yuuko. I am your guest, yeah."
"Well you're an unwanted guest, so please take your leave." Yuuko placed the tray on the wooden surface and closed her eyes, mentally counting to ten, while trying to ignore the pest that was sneaking up closer.
"No need to be so formal, yeah."
Arms encircled her waist and she growled, stepping on his toes.
"That fucking hurt, you bitch!"
She turned and pushed him farther away, ignoring his whining, "Don't touch me, you man-whore."
Deidara chuckled, "Man-whore?"
"That's what you are aren't you? Akatsuki's personal slut. They must dig your feminine looks. Or did you lose your job now that Ryu is in the picture. But of course, the poofs in your organization use you to satisfy their lust for young boys, I suppose." Her attempt at making the blond angry failed however, as he only let out a surprised laugh.
"Wow, you've certainly grown, yeah. Last time the only thing you could think of was insulting my hair color. But still, that wasn't very nice, yeah. You should save insults like that for Kisame."
"He doesn't annoy me as much as you do, blondie."
Deidara rolled his eyes as he decided to lounge in her bed, "There you go again with the hair color. Do you have something against blonds?"
"I might."
He only chuckled, "Well, the bath is ready for you."
"Bath?"
"Yeah."
Oh thank god, I can take a bath!
"Where?"
The blond stood and gestured for her to follow him. Her food forgotten she hurried after him to the hall and from there to the room two doors down. She entered and gasped at the huge bath in the floor. It was like a big circular hole filled with hot water, steam filling the room. There was a bundle of clothes next to the bath and she raised an eyebrow at Deidara.
"Your nightclothes. Itachi thought you might want to get your clothes washed for tomorrow. Training is much better in clean clothes, yeah."
Yuuko smiled wryly, Of course... Training.
"Any chance of joining you?"
She glared at the blond, "Any chance of stopping you from joining me?"
"Well, yeah, since I can't do anything against your wishes, unless I want to get beaten up by Itachi."
Her brows shot up. Okay, they are all being too nice. Somehow I think that tomorrow is going to be hell.
Deidara grinned at her suggestively, "But if you want me to stay..."
The only answer he got was a glare, so he put up his hands in surrender and sighed dramatically, "Would've been fun, yeah," before leaving the bathroom.
Yuuko waited for the door to close before squealing excitedly. She quickly stripped, throwing her clothes on the floor and dived into the water. She surfaced and gasped because of the scalding temperature. She swam to the other end where she had noticed a soap and a bottle of shampoo sitting on the edge, waiting for her to use them. She washed her head and rinsed before sitting on the edge and soaping up her body, happy to get the dust and dirt off of her. She was just about to put the soap away, when the door opened and she let out a surprised yell before quickly grabbing the fluffy white towel that had been placed around her new clothes and covered her upper body with it. Slipping back into the bath wouldn't have helped, seeing as the water was so clear it wouldn't hide anything. Yuuko glared at the intruder.
He had a big grin on his face when he spotted her, "You finally ready to admit your position in life?"
Funny, how everyone likes to use slut-jokes.
"Ha. Ha. As much as I love your idiotically simple sense of humor, I must admit that your skin color isn't exactly a turn-on for me."
They both stared at each other in silence as the tension grew.
He glared before turning away, "I'm gonna leave before I wring that neck of yours."
"You do that, Sharkie!"
Kisame growled while leaving, slamming the door closed. Yuuko swallowed and sighed, throwing the now soapy towel on the floor and jumped into the water. For one second there, she had thought of the possibility of getting raped, but as it seemed, she had Itachi's protection. And that scared her even more.
"What the hell is he planning to do tomorrow?" Her eyes shot up at the ceiling, where she pictured Ketricken's face again, telling her to stop being such a whiny brat. Miraculously, it helped.
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Tomorrow came far too early when she was woken by someone strongly shaking her shoulders. Opening her eyes, she growled at the blue-skinned man and he growled back. Their animalistic conversation was broken however by Deidara, who chose that moment to throw her clean clothes at her. She bit her lower lip as she checked them, making sure nothing was done to them before slipping out of bed and starting to change before stopping and turning around to see the two males watching her with lewd grins on their faces.
"Get. Out."
"Come on, give us a show, kid."
"What he said, yeah."
Yuuko crossed her arms over her chest and glared at the perverts until they both sighed and rolled their eyes before leaving.
"If you keep acting like that, someone would think you were brothers or something." She shouted after them, making them send chilling glares over their shoulders before slamming the door closed.
She chuckled and took off the simple black cotton pajamas, replacing them with her own clothes. She decided to do some stretching before Itachi called her, thinking that the Uchiha would probably want to get straight to the 'good' part-as in to beat her up.
A few stretches later Deidara entered again, "I'll show you to the training grounds, yeah."
A few minutes later they were on the field, where Itachi waited.
A few hours later Yuuko wished she was dead.
Training had been, exactly like she had imagined. Horrible, excruciating and utterly embarrassing. Yes, she had stamina. And yes she considered herself skillful, well she had, before Itachi had proven her wrong. Today, they had focused on taijutsu and she cringed later in her room when she tried to find a comfortable position that wouldn't make her hiss in pain. The man was faster than anyone she had ever fought. He hadn't even used the sharingan on her. He had just blocked and deflected all of her kicks and punches and had retaliated in a way that made her feel shamed about her style and speed.
Itachi was an interesting teacher, that was for sure.
He hadn't said one word during and after the battle. He only gave her that disapproving stare before he left, uninjured and not even sweating.
Yuuko should have known the man's strength and shouldn't have even dreamed of beating Itachi. The man had after all managed to kill Ketricken, who had been twice as strong as Yuuko.
Yuuko should have also known that a man like Itachi expected you to figure it out on your own and would never correct your stance or your style. No, he would only defeat you making you feel humiliated and making you want to change your way of fighting.
And in a way it worked. Yuuko was now ready to do anything to get as good as Itachi. Even if it meant sacrificing her own uniqueness in battle. Ketricken would disapprove, but she honestly didn't care anymore. This man... he had power. And now, after seeing it, she could almost understand why everyone wanted it so bad.
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Three months had passed and her training had changed. They still focused on taijutsu, but after a while, Itachi had started to make slight comments about her techniques, pointing out her mistakes, making it easier for her to improve now that she knew what she was doing wrong. Sometimes they had an audience, which usually consisted of three people: Kisame, Deidara and Ryu. Sharkie had at first made lewd comments each time she and Itachi had got into a compromising situation, but one look from the Uchiha made him shut up. As if I would ever want to fuck my personal torturer.
Deidara hadn't exactly stayed quiet as well, but his comments were more on the subject of Yuuko's hair or clothes, asking for permission to correct them. She of course refused quite bluntly making him insult her, which usually started a shrewd banter between the two of them. And of course it was silenced by a look from Itachi.
Ryu on the other hand had only shown up for the first two weeks, but after Itachi had understood that her presence made Yuuko angry and therefore not pay attention, he had told her to stop coming. Yuuko had been grateful, it showed on her face, but she didn't voice it. After all, thanking the man who had killed her best friend just for removing the woman-who had pretended to be their confidant on hiscommand-out of her sight seemed ridiculous.
They had had one of their daily training again and this time only Deidara had been watching. Yuuko knew she was improving by the fact that when at first she couldn't dodge one blow from Itachi, not even mentioning hitting him herself, now she had managed to dodge half of his blows and had even managed to kick him... once. In the ribs. And he hadn't even flinched.
They were finished and Yuuko dropped down to do her usual stretching, so her muscles wouldn't be sore in the morning. Usually this was the time when Itachi would leave and Deidara would attack her with his special combs and the skirts he was trying to get her to wear (if the man wasn't such a flirt, she would swear that he was gay). But as usual, the Uchiha managed to surprise her by actually sitting as well, leaning on the tree at the edge of the clearing, his stare impassive and devoid of any emotion.
"...You have improved."
Yuuko froze in mid-stretch and gaped at him. Before she managed to say any jokes of Itachi actually complementing her, realization hit. The man was just stating a fact like always. No need to get her hopes up, that he was actually human. She sighed and stopped her stretching, leaning back on her hands to gaze at the man thoughtfully, also noticing that Deidara had left already.
"Well, your teaching methods have improved as well."
The man didn't answer to that, but there was that odd glint in his eyes again and Yuuko was unsure what exactly it meant. Was he amused, or maybe just annoyed?
"...You asked about my reasons."
It took her a while to get what he was talking about. And when she did, she refused to believe it. "Are you actually considering telling me your reasons? Why?"
Itachi stood and now Yuuko could clearly see the amusement in his eyes. But it was still odd. It didn't seemed to be amusement from something like a joke or at someone's humiliation. No, it was bitter... and too complicated for Yuuko to comprehend.
"...I'm not considering. And I'm not going to tell you."
Well, it had seemed highly unlikely anyway.
"But I am going to show you."
"Huh?" Was all she could get out, before she saw those dots spinning again and she gasped in realization just before she was hit with memories he sent her. Things that he either created or remembered for her. Memories from his childhood. Through the eyes of an onlooker she watched the scenes unfold. Memories from his teens. Through the eyes of a third person she saw how he saw it. His reasons. He showed her his reasons and his feelings and finally Yuuko began to understand.
She was removed from the imaginary world, and found herself in the exact same position as before. Nausea hit her as the flashes of his past kept running before her eyes.
Yuuko swallowed down the bile and rose shakily, panting, her breath catching in her throat every once in a while, "How do I know you didn't create those memories? That world is yours and you control everything there..."
"...I am not fond of lying."
She let out an outrageous laugh, "Not fond? NOT FOND? You had no problem lying to your brother!" Yuuko waited for a response, anything that would make him seem the slightest bit guilty of what he had done, but none came. "Sasuke deserves the truth!" The man only walked forward, brushing her shoulder when he stopped next to her.
"...Do you understand now?" She closed her eyes, horrified and nodded, swallowing her whimper.
Itachi left her there to cry alone and she apologized to her best friend for showing her tears, before she collapsed-weary and tired-just so she could see his nightmares all over again.
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A/N:
Hola my faithful readers ;D Must say I was very happy with the reviews I got for my last chapter, never mind how short they were. This is what I'm talking about people. It's not about the length, it's not about the numbers, it's about letting me know that there are actually people who wish for me to update ;) That's all I'm asking: If you like what you read, let me know and I'll have another reason (you) to update for xD
So, about this chapter:
Yes... mourning for Ketricken... well. I tried to explain why Yuuko would get over it so easily... but it sounds fake to me XD Don't worry in the next chapter, which is consisted of memories - Ketricken's and Itachi's (if we dare to believe him) - there will be more of how they met and how exactly they became friends.
About what I said in the preview for this chapter... I must admit I planned for it to go differently. I planned for this to have the whole 1,5-2 years of waiting for that... event as I mentioned. But this waiting will go on a little longer.
Itachi lovers out there... well, I hope you will be happy with the next chapter, because it actually justifies him hurting Sasuke ;D And some clever people will understand what that blood-scroll was all about x)
Ja ne,
Fuzzy
Edit: OMIGOD XD Thank you Sasukez for pointing out a huge yet funny mistake. XD The way I said it... a few pharagraphs above.. it sounds like Ketricken and Itachi are friends lol. No. I mean Yuuko's and Itachi's memories. And how Yuuko and Ketricken became friends. Thought I'd clear that up ;D