Red ~ The color of fire and blood, so it is associated with energy, war, danger, strength, power, determination as well as passion, desire, and love.
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Colors.
Chapter 2: Red.
He was covered in it. Drying red blood, splattered against the dark colors of his ANBU uniform and Yuriko knew instantly what had happened. The Uchiha had been acting up for a while now and she had the feeling it wasn't going to end well.
Not for the Uchiha, and definitely not for Itachi and Sasuke. Sasuke was Itachi younger brother, the same age as Naruto. She'd known Sasuke since he was just a baby, and he was in her brother's class. Naruto was commonly complaining about Sasuke in one way or another.
"You're leaving, aren't you?" she asked after he'd turned up at her home.
Naruto was already in his room, napping after training himself into exhaustion. So it was just them. She clinched her fist, her fingers digging into her knee length skirt, which was a navy blue that stood out against the pale leaf green of her thigh length kimono-top and black obi. The sleeves were long, touching the tips of her fingers.
"Hn. Everyone is dead... everyone," he muttered, his eyes staring straight into hers hauntingly. There was no need to say Sasuke was the exception, Yuriko already knew he'd never kill his little brother.
She could see where he'd cried. The wet stains stood out against his pale skin. Lifting her hand she placed it against his cheek and ran her thumb over the deep tear troughs of his face. She smiled sadly and pulled him into a hug, not caring that he was getting her clothes bloody with what blood hadn't dried.
"Sasuke is still alive though. The Uchiha aren't entirely gone, Itachi-kun," she whispered to him.
"I should be gone by now, the ANBU are probably chasing a clone across the boarders right now." Itachi sighed and Yuriko pulled away. "I couldn't leave without saying goodbye."
She frowned deeply, her eyes narrowing in determination. "You're not leaving without me."
Itachi's head snapped up, a look of utter disbelief on his face. She couldn't actually mean what she was getting at. She couldn't come with him! She'd be considered a missing-nin, and she had Naruto to take care of. Yuriko smiled, as if reading his mind.
"Don't worry about Naruto, I'll leave a blood clone in the village. I can disguise myself while outside it, no one will realize I ever left."
"The Hokage will notice eventually. It won't be as powerful as you, despite being a blood clone. What happens if your clone dies?" Itachi asks and she shakes her head.
"I'll talk to the Hokage, but my mind is made up. One way or another I'm going with you. Besides, you still have a few doses of Phoenix tears to take before your illness is cured. I'm not going to let my best friend kill himself!" she said as loudly and forcefully as she dare without waking Naruto up. Itachi sighed.
Mentally and physically he was exhausted, and all he could see was red. His clothes were stained in it and after she'd hugged him her clothes had been stained in red as well – the only shade of red he remotely enjoyed looking at right now was the dark red of her long hair. Similar to the red of his clans symbol.
"If the Hokage agrees, then you can come with me Yuri." She grinned happily. Her green eyes were sparkling and all he saw was her.
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Convincing the Sandaime wasn't an easy task. It had at one point come down to her down right threatening to leave with Itachi, his permission be damned (which was downright bordering on treason), and taking Naruto with them. She wanted to take Sasuke as well, but with the damage done he'd never come with her and Itachi even if they tried.
The only reason she got her way was her ability to control her emotions (for example, her temper, which she'd inherited from her mother), and the fact she specialized in stealth and infiltration.
Because of this she was trained to be an assassination type kunoichi. And she wasn't above using seduction to get what she needed on a mission. Even those who didn't specialize in seduction knew how to use it when the mission called for it.
Itachi would be joining the Akatsuki, an organization who were after the bijū. One of which was sealed inside her little brother, which meant having someone like her inside the Akatsuki would be beneficial. It helped that she was as hard headed as her mother and father, two people Hiruzen was close to before their death.
Minato had been his successor, and in someways he saw Yuriko and Naruto as his responsibilities. He also knew that if the village were to find out their Yondaime's daughter had turned traitor to follow Uchiha Itachi, a kin-slayer, from the village – than it would cause unforeseeable backlash for the village.
More so to young Naruto who loved his sister so much, and looked up to her as a shinobi. She had been both his mother and sister growing up, having raised him practically by herself. She was the sun Naruto's world orbited around, and if she left him behind Hiruzen didn't want to know how he'd react. The villagers certainly wouldn't make it easier for him.
In the end he agreed. But only on the condition she left the sturdiest blood clone she could create, and that she returned in no more than ten years – a generous offer since he hadn't wanted to allow her request. She would go under her ANBU guise, which no one, not even the other ANBU, knew to be her.
Her mask had a special seal which helped her cast a powerful genjutsu over her body, making her hair turn midnight black and her eyes turn dark red. She had chosen this appearance for her own reasons, but as far as Hiruzen knew it was random.
It wasn't random for Yuri though; it was the same shade of black hair as her first father and incarnation's hair. While the red eyes were the same color (but a darker shade) as her first enemy, someone she hated as much as she grudgingly respected; Tom Riddle (known by most as Lord Voldemort).
By the time the sun rose, Uchiha Itachi and ANBU Operative Kojika would be known missing-nin charged with the massacre of the Uchiha clan. It was rather heart-wrenching for Hiruzen to watch as the two prodigies of Konoha fled in the night under the blood red moon. Their little brothers being none the wiser to their sacrifices (even if one was a little more selfish than the other).
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AN: So, another chapter. I've actually had this one done for as long as the first chapter, just wanted to go over it before I posted it. I was happy with the turn out of the first chapter, I'm glad everyone is enjoying this.
I've decided to take this in a direction that some may question, and hopefully I've explained Yuriko's motivation well enough. Some have mentioned a pairing, and for those who haven't checked my website for the information, this is an Itachi/Yuri pairing. As a drabble series the timeline will jump around a bit, so next chapter will be just before canon begins.
For those wondering about my other stories. I am working on it, but I am much busier than usual, especially this month, so it's kinda been slow going. I've almost finished typing up the next chapter of The Roaring of The Sea, so hopefully I can update that soon.
One last thing for those interested; Yuri's name - Yuriko means 'lily child', I think it's obvious why I chose the name. Her ANBU operative name, Kojika, means 'small deer'.