Hello everyone! I hope this story finds you all well on this lovely Saturday morning. I would like to give a BIG thanks to kwisy for leaving the first review! I really appreciate it and would love more opinions; so please, review! Well, with out further delay, on with the story!
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or its characters, just those of my own design.

Chapter 4

For the past three years, much to his father's displeasure, Itachi still met Kikyuu for training. The young girl was turning out to be a fine shinobi with Itachi's help. Her taijutsu and speed had increased twofold from those years ago, so much so that without a sharingan, she was as quick as lightning. Additionally, with the help of her grandfather, she developed her talent for being a sensor ninja, discovering that her ability to detect lies was from that gift. Between her grandfather's help and Itachi's help, she had passed the chunin exams with flying colors.

Today, nearly six months after the exams, she had finally been promoted and she dashed through the village to meet Itachi at their spot to tell him the news. She wore the vest proudly and smiled brightly as she landed in the clearing by the lake. She panted softly as she looked around for her friend and only blinked when an ANBU member landed on a tree branch beside her. She quirked an eyebrow at the person as they landed beside her and simply remained silent.

"Who are you?" She asked.

"It is the duty of an ANBU member to always remain masked so only the Hokage and Elders know their identity," the person replied.

Kikyuu immediately recognized the voice and sensed the smirk the person was wearing before replying, "Couldn't let me have my moment, could you, Itachi? Just when I make chunin, you get to join ANBU. Is that what the mission you went on a few weeks ago was about?"

Itachi reached up and slipped off his mask, smirking, "Yes, yes it was and, don't worry, I'm still happy that you made chunin."

The young girl smiled and nodded as she picked up a few rocks and began skipping them across the lake while asking:

"So, I assume this means that we'll see less of each other now, hmm?"

Itachi sighed as he stood next to her, "I'm afraid so. Between you, Sasuke, my clan meetings, and my duties to Konoha, I barely have time for myself. I have to cut something out. So sorry, Kikyuu." He smirked and glanced at her.

She threw her last rock into the lake before looking at her friend then suddenly tackling him to the ground, "You teasing jerk!"

They both laughed as they wrestled for a few moments before Itachi suddenly pinned her beneath him. Her hair had come loose during their roughhousing and was splayed on the ground around her while a few strands of Itachi's hair hung loose about his face. They both panted as they looked at each other before Kikyuu wiggled slightly:

"All right, Itachi. You beat me; now, let me up."

However, the Uchiha didn't move as he continued to stare down at her. Kikyuu looked at him curiously and began to ask him what was wrong before Itachi suddenly leaned down and captured her lips with his. He kissed her slowly but firmly and for a moment, Kikyuu was frozen; she couldn't react. Finally, she began to kiss Itachi back. The young man released her arms and wrapped his around her waist, gently laying his body against hers. Kikyuu blushed as she wrapped her arms around Itachi's neck and continued to kiss him, enjoying the feeling of him being pressed against her.

Finally, the Uchiha broke the kiss and looked into Kikyuu's eyes and stated:

"I didn't know how to convey my feelings and now is not the best time. I'm so sorry, Kikyuu. I shouldn't have done this."

The Uchiha quickly stood and Kikyuu jumped up, gripping his arm to stop him from leaving while replying:

"Wait, Itachi. I didn't know you felt this way too. I've been feeling it for so long. Just please, please tell me…. what's wrong?"

The Uchiha turned again, sighing, "I cannot tell you, but what I can say is this: things are about to change and it would be best if you ever forgot you knew me."

Her eyes watered, "D-Don't say that, Itachi. Just… Just please… I…This isn't about your father, is it?"

The young man moved in close to her and kissed her fiercely against before pressing his forehead against hers, the metal of their forehead protectors clinking slightly as they touched. He looked into her eyes and replied:

"Kami, no. I could care less about what my father thinks. As I said, things are about to change and it would be in your best interest if you forgot all about me. I-"

"Itachi!"

Both of them pulled away from one another and looked up to see Shisui looking down at them in his Police Force uniform. The new arrival leapt down beside them and looked at his friend while stating:

"You're lucky I found you instead of Fugaku-san. He's looking for you and wanted whoever found you to tell you to meet him in your home's training room."

Itachi nodded and gave one last longing look to Kikyuu before leaping off. The girl watched the boy who held her heart leap away before looking at Shisui and asking:

"Why has he been acting strangely as of late?"

The boy sighed, "I'm not sure, but he's right. Things are about to change; it would be best to avoid the Uchiha for now."

Kikyuu watched Shisui leap away before sighing heavily, confused and very hurt.

When Itachi arrived at his home, he quickly entered and changed out of his ANBU uniform and into his typical garb of a black shirt and black pants. He entered the training room and found his father waiting for him. He moved and knelt before his father and bowed slightly before asking:

"You wished to see me?"

Fugaku looked at his son and answered, "Yes, on two matters. The first will be easier to deal with."

He looked towards the same door that Itachi entered as one of the clan leaders entered with a girl a few years younger than Itachi entered. They both sat beside Fugaku and remained silent as Itachi's father looked back at his son and stated:

"You remember councilman Seiryoku and his daughter Yasuragi, don't you, Itachi?"

The young man simply nodded, "Of course, how could I forget?"

The girl blushed lightly as Fugaku continued:

"Excellent. Then I would like to inform you that she is now to be your betrothed. As the rules of the clan state that all marriages are arranged to ensure a suitable continuance of the bloodline."

Itachi's jaw clenched at his father's words before he sighed, "As you wish, father."

Fugaku smirked and this smirk grew as the councilman asked, "Itachi-san, would you like to escort my daughter around the village? To publicly but humbly announce your new engagement?"

Itachi glared at his father for he immediately knew that he was trying to ensure his complete separation from Kikyuu: his father's second matter for discussion.

Itachi's father smiled, "Yes, why don't you do that, Itachi?"

Reluctantly, the eldest Uchiha son stood and helped Yasuragi stand before offering his arm to her and leading her out of the house and compound and into the streets of Konoha.

Kikyuu, unsatisfied with the explanation Itachi then Shisui gave her, moved quickly towards the Uchiha compound. However, when she arrived outside of the compound, she saw Itachi escorting a young lady with him. She gasped, as they seemed to be laughing and conversing and enjoying one another's company. Suddenly, the man who had kissed her not an hour earlier kissed the girl on the cheek. When he looked up, his eyes met hers; however, she quickly turned and leapt away, tears flowing from her eyes.

"Who was that?" Yasuragi questioned.

Itachi, whose patient was wearing thin at having to put up this charade, looked sadly after Kikyuu before looking back down at the girl and lying convincingly well:

"No one."

That evening, after returning to the compound, Itachi sat in the foyer of his home putting on his shoes. When he was just about to stand to leave, he heard Sasuke ask:

"Oniisan?"

Itachi turned and looked his little brother, "Yes?"

"Can… Can we go do some training?" The boy questioned.

"Hn," Itachi replied.

Sasuke smiled and took two steps forward before Itachi reached up and swiftly poked him on the forehead and stated:

"Maybe some other time, all right Sasuke?"

The older brother quickly stood and left Sasuke rubbing his forehead. The eldest Uchiha sighed as he went to meet Shisui by the river.

Two nights later, Kikyuu sat at her desk in her room practicing writing mission reports. She glanced at the clock on her nightstand and sighed when she saw it was one in the morning. She turned back to her scroll and rolled it up before standing. When she did, however, she noticed that someone was standing in her room by her bed. She turned to grab a kunai from her desk before the mystery person slammed her against the wall. She winced slightly but ignored the pain as she looked in the person's eyes and gasped when she realized who was looking back at her with those blood red eyes:

"I-Itachi? What are you doing?" She paused and sniffed twice before her eyes widened as she looked at him and spoke softly, "Why… Why do you smell like blood?"

The Uchiha held her in place as he responded, "I smell like blood because I slaughtered every soul in the Uchiha clan tonight."

Kikyuu's eyes widened, "No…. E-Everyone? Even Sasuke?"

Itachi smirked, "Especially him."

The girl smiled and began laughing, "I can tell you're lying… you didn't kill him… you wouldn't hurt your precious little brother."

Itachi gripped her shoulders and threw her against her dresser. She cried out slightly as she collided with the draws but she quickly stood and maneuvered around the slice of his ANBU issue katana.

"Why are you doing this?" She demanded as she heard her grandfather beginning to move downstairs.

"I do it because I must, because the Uchiha are a tainted clan," he replied as he stepped forward and sliced at her again.

She tried to dodge but failed and ended up with a slice across the stomach.

"And why are you here attacking me? I'm not of your clan!" She cried out as she gripped the bleeding wound.

He sighed and put away his katana, "I came to say 'goodbye'."

"Funny way of saying it!" She shouted back and he smiled sadly at her; she thought she saw tears forming in his eyes.

As suddenly as he appeared, he disappeared, his chakra vanishing from her senses. Kikyuu blinked and slowly scanned the room in the dim light of the moon, desperately searching for any signs of the killer threat now lurking in the shadows.

The kunoichi tensed, she felt breath on the nape of her neck and Itachi's chakra slowly returning. She knew he was behind her and she felt it was the end as he whispered:

"I do owe you an explanation, but now is not the time and there will never be a time. Just accept that our friendship… our love… was and is cursed…I'm sorry, but thank you for giving me memories that I can cherish until my death."

Before Kikyuu could reply Itachi rendered her unconscious and left her lying on the cold floor of her bedroom, bleeding slowly.

As sunlight broke through the hospital window, Kikyuu sat up with a start. She panted heavily as she looked around before blinking as someone hugged her. She realized it was her grandfather who was praising Kami that his granddaughter was alive. She hugged her grandfather back before the old man released her as the door to her hospital room opened. Both of their eyes looked to the door and they were surprised to see the Hokage standing in the entrance way.

"Hiroimono," Sarutobi began, "If I could have a word with Kikyuu here…"

The old man obliged and quickly left the room, shutting the door behind him.

Sarutobi moved to the window and stared out of it silently. Kikyuu watched the Hokage for a few moments before asking:

"What is it that you need, Hokage-sama?"

The old man looked at the girl before him and asked, "Did you assist Itachi Uchiha in the massacre?"

The girl paled, "I'm flattered you think I could, but I did not."

"We have intel that states otherwise," the man coolly replied as he turned to her.

The girl narrowed her eyes and smirked, "You're lying. You don't have any such intel. You know my story checks out; you know where I was from two hours before the massacre began to when that…that…monster appeared in my room."

The old man smiled, "You're a good a sensor as we suspected from your exams. This is very good. Oh, and don't worry, we do not suspect you at all. I was merely testing you."

"Testing me?" Kikyuu asked, confused.

The Hokage smiled, "As morbid as this is, yes. For it seems we now have an opening in ANBU. Always on the look out for new recruits."

Kikyuu watched the old man leave her room before she quickly stood, ignoring the tightness of her bandages before going to the door. She felt Sasuke's chakra nearby, but felt that it was quickly fading. She wanted to talk to him; she felt as if she needed to; as if she had to. She slipped past the nurse's station and around the Hokage, who was conversing with her grandfather before reaching the stairwell.

Dashing down it and then out of the hospital entrance, she turned her head in a scanning motion as she searched for Sasuke's faint chakra signature before smiling a bit as she found it. Ignoring the pain in her stomach, she leapt off after the youngest Uchiha.

She had only travelled for a few minutes before she arrived outside the Uchiha compound, the entrance gate roped off with yellow tape that was slightly disturbed. Kikyuu sighed as she stepped into the compound she had only visited on a rare occasion. The solemnness of the streets depressed her and the lingering scent of copper filled her nostrils, the lingering smell of blood. She slowly walked through the compound, grumbling slightly as the light rainfall began to intensify before she finally arrived outside of the house she had been heading towards: Itachi's.

Kikyuu knew Sasuke was inside, she felt his young chakra, but what was she to say to him? Any words of condolence wouldn't suffice and she doubted that she even had some soothing words inside of her. However, she did know that she wouldn't find her answers outside in the rain, so she stepped inside the house. After wiping her muddy bare feet on the welcome mat and even slipping off her shoes, she laughed softly at her own foolishness and then stepped further into the home.

It didn't take her long to find Sasuke collapsed on the floor of the indoor training room and crying softly. She moved to step forward when a floorboard beneath her creaked and alerted Sasuke to her presence. The boy jumped up, his arms moving into a defensive position as he stared wide-eyed at the intruder to his home before dropping his arms.

"Kiki…" he whispered softly before moving forward and hugging her tightly.

The young kunoichi blinked before several moments before she knelt down to his level and hugged him in return, silent tears falling from both of their eyes.

"Oh Sasuke…" she whispered, "I am so sorry…"

The boy sniffled, "Why did he do it? Why did he, Kiki?"

The girl released him, leaning back on her calves as she wiped her eyes, "I don't know, Sasuke," she replied.

"But… But you must know!" He shouted at her, "You were one of his closest friends! You must know! He must've told you something! Anything…. to explain this…"

The anger in his voice left as he delivered the last sentence while looking back over his shoulder at the outlines and bloodstains left behind by his parents.

Kikyuu followed his eyes before gently turning Sasuke's face back to hers so she could look into his eyes.

"Sasuke," she began, "Life… Life isn't fair. When something… bad happens, you have three choices: you can let that terrible thing define you; you can let it destroy you; or, you can let it strengthen you."

The boy blinked at her for a few moments, processing and analyzing her words before looking into her eyes with determination, his sharingan flashing for a brief moment:

"Then, I know what I have to do. I'll kill him, Kikyuu. I'll avenge my family… my clan, by killing him."

The young kunoichi stood slowly, staring down at Sasuke with wide eyes as she thought, 'His sharingan…. Dear Kami, Itachi… what have you done to your innocent little brother? ...You monster…"