Anko stared down at the blood pouring from her wound. Despite how weak she felt, she had somehow managed to keep a strong hold of Itachi's hands and the sword that was in her. She looked up at him with shaking eyes, how could he be so calm while she was screaming on the inside?
Itachi forced himself out of her grip and with him his weapon, causing her to topple to her knees. He stepped back to survey her, the bloody but unbroken mess that he had created. He watched her wrap her arms around her stomach in a vain attempt to stop the blood from flowing out any further. She has been poisoned and he did not know what to do. If worse, he thought she looked beautiful when she was in pain.
He couldn't help but walk closer and kneel down to her height [His knees landed in the pool of blood that had formed there but he was too mesmerized to care].
His fingertips, calloused and bloodied from his own torment, barely grazed her skin when she started screaming. It echoed all through out the nightmare realm but there was no one or nothing around to hear it. It was just them, just like he had wanted it to be.
Her screaming slowly died away and all she could do was squeeze her eyes shut and shake and cry. Sob and breathe. Bleed and die.
And yet, she was still the same, an unbroken, strong girl who was willing to take him to an early grave with her. A perfect subject.
He gripped her shoulder in an encouraging sort of way and leaned forward [the scent of her blood was different than that of the ones he had encountered on battlefields and that it self was worth whiled].
And he kissed her.
Her eyes flew open to meet Itachi's closed ones. Was he enjoying himself this while she was losing her mind?
Her gasped was muffled when an icy feeling spread around her upper body. And when he ended whatever it was he was doing to her, she was completely healed. So she sat there, dumbfounded and confused and let this complete stranger nuzzle her neck. "May I ask something of you?" He whispered.
Anko gulped and did not move.
He pulled back and caressed her cheek as he whispered "I want to ask you to lend me your soul for a little while, just long enough for me to get rid of someone."
Her face was now bleeding from the dried blade-like finger tips of Itachi but she couldn't feel it.
Something was happening that caused her body and senses to go completely numb.
All she could register after that was his smile. "It'll be over soon. I promise."
Her eyes widened as she was completely taken over. "I'll kill you some other time okay?"
Orochimaru almost lost his mind when Itachi dropped his disguise. Anko faded away like an illusion and was replaced by Itachi's decaying form.
"…you never died." Orochimaru assumed.
Itachi smirked. "No, I did die back there. My body was giving out and I needed somewhere to go until my job here was done." His eyes flashed. "I needed someone to get close to you so that you would catch the affect and die."
"What are you talking about?"
"Why…the virus of course."
Orochimaru stared at him with anticipation. He never could figure Itachi out; everything from his expressions to the words he said was complete wacky.
Out of nowhere his eyes widened and he dropped to his knees, vomiting violently.
Itachi laughed softly. "Looks like you and Anko got it, such a shame, I never intended for it to harm her in such a way but she for one won't last much longer since it's been in her system for this long."
Orochimaru panted and wiped the vile away from his face. "Where…where is she?"
Itachi stood up and began pacing slowly towards him.
Orochimaru tried to crawl back while keep a serious look on. "Where is Anko?" Itachi was closer now, so close that Orochimaru could smell the old blood radiating off of him. "I want an answer already!"
In a flash Itachi was straddling him, his hands holding his hips down, blood dripping from his smiling mouth. His eyes were so lost and insane, it would've been sad if Orochimaru didn't hate him so much. Itachi laughed softly which caused blood to spill on Orochimaru, and bent down slowly to whispered to him "…looks like I got it to." He burst out in to manically laughter and started choking Orochimaru with strength that shouldn't have belonged to a…dead man?
His laughter grew louder and louder until Orochimaru's ears began ringing. He struggled with Itachi's grip but all he could focus on was that laughter. Itachi's laughter. Anko laughter? She was still alive somewhere…
Orochimaru threw Itachi off of him, taking in air as he recovered. He heard Itachi collide with something and he silently hoped that he had bashed his head open. He sat up, rubbing his aching throat.
Itachi had hit his head on the bed and for the moment was paralyzed and unable to thing straight. Warm blood poured torturously down his neck but he barely felt anything but the hand tightening around his neck. "Now I'm going to ask you one last time before I break your neck and end your pathetic existence."
Itachi only laughed at that statement. "You seem to have forgotten that I'm already dead."
Orochimaru blinked and he was out of his grip. He stared at his empty hands until Itachi regained his attention by wrapping one of his arms around Orochimaru's neck. "You're the one who needs to worry about dying." He reminded. "The virus waits for no one."
Orochimaru shot around but all that was there was the sound of Itachi's psychotic laughter. Suddenly the door flew open and Orochimaru heard Itachi say in a fading voice "…Oh Orochimaru…" he was slung to the ground by the invisible force that was Itachi.
"…I'm going to kill Anko now…"
Orochimaru gasped and struggled to get up. As soon as he was on his feet, he followed Itachi's laughter until it completely faded away.
"No!" he said. Itachi could have been anywhere but there was only one reason he cared about that, Anko.
Wherever he was she was and she was in great danger.
As Orochimaru ran up and down the hallways, checking every crack and room, nothing else existed except Anko.
The years of experiments, gaining the entire world, nothing. If he found Anko, if he could find her alive, he would be forever satisfied.
.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.
"So that's how it happened…" Anko said to herself as the memories of her meeting with Itachi in the nightmare realm became clearer and clearer.
That was it. Her control was coming back and she was seeing just how dangerous really Itachi was. He was worse than Orochimaru. Well, not entirely.
I'm killing you out of love Anko, be thankful for that.
Orochimaru wouldn't have been that merciful.
"He did kill me." Anko realized. "He killed off my rights to make my own decisions and control my own body. He put a poison inside me that no one could cure."
A tear slid down her cheek and she curled up into a tighter ball on the cold metal floor. "He said he loved me…it was a lie…he used me." She dug her nails into the floor to keep herself from screaming. "I…I'm so sick of being used!"
She flopped over on her back and tried to see past the darkness that was the autopsy room. She wanted to be alone in that little black room forever, just lay there and slowly die with nothing to hold her back.
There was a noise and Anko slowly turned to the direction it was coming from. Somehow a light came on just beside the freezers holding all sorts of dead bodies, most importantly, Itachi's.
Itachi's slowly slid open, cold gas-like air swimming out of the sides as it opened further.
Anko sat up a watched in memorization as the body bag was slowly unzipped and a medium sized scarred figure rose from it. Only his waste up was exposed and his neck was arched down in a painful way. He slowly lifted his head and somehow caught a glimpse of Anko in the dim light. "So here you are…" he whispered. He unzipped the rest of the bag and stepped out of it cautiously, nude and all.
He slowly walked to a cupboard and opened it, bringing out what was left of his clothes, and dressing himself.
Anko could only watch because she wanted so badly to wake up from this nightmare. It was like watching someone jump off a bridge: you could scream and run but you could never look away because deep in their mind they were excited to watch someone break.
She blinked and Itachi was squatting down in front of her. Startled, she crawled back until she hit a wall, but Itachi followed, just like he always did. He touched her; there was kindness in his movements and touches but none at all in his expression.
She dared to look into his eyes, nothing was there: no feeling, no color, and no sight.
"You're blind." Anko realized.
A white tear slid down Itachi's ruined face.
"No don't…" she whispered; she didn't want to see him in pain anymore. She reached out to wipe the tear away but he grabbed her arm and pinned it against the wall.
She couldn't help but scream and sobbed as Itachi dug a needle ever so slowly into her arm. "Itachi please!"
Itachi stopped and Anko relaxed only for a few seconds before he drove the needle full length into her. "You brought this on yourself."
"No!" Anko defended. "I did what you wanted, I did everything you asked me to-"
"Shut up!" he shouted. He slung her into the middle of the room where she hit the floor hard. She pulled the needle out and sat up to better heal her arm.
Itachi approached her slowly. Anko whimpered and crawled back as far as she could from him, but not even that would cause her to escape.
.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.
Orochimaru's head shot out of the room he was searching in. He had heard a scream of some sort and wondered if it was Anko. When the hallway became silent again, he growled and started running again; next up was the labs and autopsy rooms.
.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.
Anko hit the wall again and felt one of the syringes graze her temple. She looked up at Itachi and his dozy form.
"You're so fucking weak!" Itachi shouted at her. He made a kick at her face but Anko grabbed his foot and sent him flying back. She scrambled up and tried to run up the stairs but Itachi grabbed her ankle and forced her back down. He jumped on top of her with a syringe leveled over her left eye. She grabbed his arm and they struggled for a moment. The blade was getting closer to her eye each second he remained on her. "Let's see how you like it." Itachi said once. "Let's see how you like not being able to see."
Finally Anko shoved him off and she crawled under the nearest safe haven, a table on the other side of the room. She watched Itachi get up again like a corpse rising from the dead, which Itachi was. He stood completely still so that he could hear any movement she made, it must have been his way of seeing without his eyes.
Anko covered her mouth so that he couldn't hear her breathing. She dared not move; even shaking out of fear was unacceptable.
"Where are you Anko?" Itachi called out drunkly. He walked around the room slowly; it was amazing how he didn't crash into anything.
Out of nowhere, he let out a loud scream of frustration and started destroying the beakers and tables near him. "Where the Hell are you Anko?" he continued smashing and throwing things around until he was mere feet away from her hide away.
Despite the fact that she was scared out of her mind, she quietly slid out from under the table while he had his back to her, eyeing the steps, her only escape. She kept her eyes on him and glanced behind her occasionally to make sure she wasn't about to crash into anything.
Pity, if Anko had looked at the ground, she may have made it.
Anko's shoe connected with a piece of glass and made a loud crunching sound as it broke. It took Itachi less than a second to have his hands around her neck again. He forced her against a table and redirected his hands to her shoulders. "You little bitch !" he growled "I should have killed you when I had the chance!"
"…But you didn't." Anko coughed out. "Why? Why did you keep me alive even though it was your mission to kill me, why did you go against an order, it's so unlike you."
Indeed it was. There was a time in Itachi's life that he would have done anything, anything reasonable that is. He would have never gone against anyone, mainly his superiors and whoever else was giving an order. But that had changed somehow the second Anko stepped into his life.
"I need you then." He answered softly. "I was dying, I knew that and I was willing but…" he hesitated and looked at her neck; staring at the developing bruises on it helped him think straight.
"I couldn't stop thinking about my brother. I knew what Orochimaru was planning to do to him in the next year and a half and I was worried that he wouldn't be ready…" one of his thumbs dug into her flesh. "I didn't want
"Sasuke…" he said in a lost tone. He looked at her. "Where did you leave my little brother?"
Anko's eyed widened, she had completely forgotten about Sasuke! He could be dead and she would have to tell Itachi!
Itachi took her chin, his softer qualities suddenly returning. "Answer me Anko." He said like a father telling his child to tell the truth to a lie that he or she had told.
Anko was living in her own.
"He's…with Kisame." She was shocked that those words came out of her own mouth, but the shark ninja was the first person Anko thought Itachi would trust.
Itachi's movements stopped. He was too quiet to be alright or angry. "I see…"
"Kisame…he said he was your…former partner. I thought I could trust him so…"
Itachi silenced her with an unhealthy smile. "Since he's here, I no longer have use for you." With lightning speed he had his hands around her neck. Anko gasped as her body was pinned down by his and he applied pressure to her windpipe. "Shh," he shushed through her struggles. "I'm killing you out of mercy Anko, be thankful for that-"
"Anko!"
Itachi, with Anko still in his hands, shot around to find Orochimaru at the foot of the steps. Anko couldn't help but smile as her savior came slowly down the stairs. Itachi forced her gaze back to him "If you say a word about this, I'll kill him right in front of you." Something ice cold slid into her hand. Anko looked down at the object, a scalpel, or a last resort. She knew exactly what he meant. "No," she begged in a hushed tone "Itachi please no…"