Ari
So of course when she and her trio found out Ita and I were dating, all hell broke loose.
The best part about that entire fiasco was the day after that disastrous dinner, Ita asked me out on an "official" date. After countless back-to-back missions, the Hokage had granted both of us a two-week vacation, so neither of us really had anything to do, especially with our brothers in school. So we agreed to meet for lunch.
We walked down the streets of Konoha, hand in hand, and got just about everyone's attention from such a small gesture.
"Woaah! Couple coming through!" Shisui called out loudly as he passed us in the market. I spat out a laugh and Itachi blushed, glaring at Shisui. But our friend got between us, putting his arms around both our shoulders, "You know how the song goes Itachi, so when are we going to be expecting that baby carriage?"
"Shisui!" Ita yelled, his voice cracking. Shisui and I both let out a couple of laughs in response. In turn, Ita glared away, embarrassed, but I gave his hand a reassuring squeeze and he loosened up.
"I'll leave you two lovebirds be, see ya around!" Shisui said as he left. It wasn't too long after that I heard the (unfortunately) familiar shrieks of the three most obnoxious girls in the entire village.
"Itaaaaaaaachiiiiii!" Izayoi sang loudly as she ran up to us, throwing her arms around him along with all her weight, causing Ita to lose his balance and fall backwards a little bit.
"Oof! Erm…hello…! Izayoi…" Ita said as he gave me a nervous and slightly apologetic glance. I narrowed my eyes and placed my hands on my hips. He shouldn't have been the one apologizing. The little bitch…okay, maybe I was jealous of her, so what?
"Itachi, you'll never guess what happened today!" Izayoi cheered, hanging all over him. Ita just played along, gently attempting to push her away but to no avail. That man could be too nice sometimes…if I were him I'd have chucked her all the way to Hokage Mountain.
"What, Izayoi?" Itachi asked, grabbing her by the shoulders and pushing her an arms-length away from him.
Behind him, Sari piped up grinning, "we were all asked to take the Chunin exams! Isn't that cool? And this is the first round of exams since we became genin. That must mean we're really talented, right?"
"Wow, girls!" Itachi complemented, "that's really great!"
"Pretty soon we'll be going on missions with you!" Amaya cheered, shooting me an evil glare, "and then you'll finally have some decent company!"
At that, I felt a nerve snap.
"Decent company…?" Itachi raised an eyebrow, "But I have—"
I went behind Ita and threw my arms around his neck and pressed my cheek to his as I stated, "Sorry girls, but I'm afraid manicured nails have no place in the ANBU Blac Ops. You have to be…a special kind of woman to go toe-to-toe with the big boys."
Izayoi shot me a glare, "Rat, get off of poor Itachi. He doesn't like being hung all over like that."
"Oh, like you weren't doing it a minute ago?" I retorted, "Seriously, Izayoi, have some pride."
"Well at least I don't smell," Izayoi sneered. My face flushed and I slowly slid off of Ita. She then got in my face and continued, "And besides, I'm afraid that you are way out of your league if you think you even have a chance with this eye-candy! You're nothing more than a messy, savage, freak of a street rat with no place in this world. If anything, you should do the world a favor and avoid any man, that way you won't screw up the gene pool."
I glared at Izayoi intensely but remained silent. That really hurt…I managed to gulp my tears down and just grimaced, frantically trying to think of a comeback that would get me out of this situation. But my guardian angel came down to save me as he tapped Izayoi on the shoulder to push her out of my face with one hand, and wrapped the other around my waist, pulling me close.
"Izayoi, that's not a very nice thing to say," Ita said sounding a little aggravated.
Izayoi's face flushed a deep red and she stammered, "I-I'm sorry, my dear, but I just can't stand to see this street rat here treating you poorly."
Itachi raised an eyebrow and pulled me closer to his side. I stared up at him with pure confusion, but Ita continued, "I think there must be a misunderstanding. This beautiful young lady is no rat. Let me introduce you, Izayoi. This is my girlfriend Ariala Drake."
There was a long pause. The only thing you could hear was the sound of Izayoi's jaw falling to the ground.
"Y-your what?" Izayoi asked in disbelief, "I'm sorry, but did you say your girlfriend? She's not even your type!"
Itachi shrugged, "my type or not, Ari's still my girlfriend. And my best friend. So I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't call her by such mean names, okay?"
At a loss for words Izayoi let out a distraught groan and stomped away. Her two groupies followed closely behind, staring at me with big eyes. Ita and I continued forward, his arm still around my waist.
"Th-thanks, Ita," I mumbled in awe. Itachi sighed heavily.
"I'm sorry, Ari," he said, "all this time and I've just put up with their nonsense. I should've stood up for you a long time ago but I was too shy."
I rolled my eyes, "Nah, if you had done that when they were going at it behind my back, then I would have never gotten to see their faces!"
After that, not much had really changed between Ita and me. Both of us a little shy, we moved forward as a couple rather slowly. We hadn't even kissed since that day in the hospital. We would never get the chance to. But then again, there was so little time for us to get closer before everything came apart. And just as things were starting to work out for us, Ita pulled away from me. I knew he was trying to protect me for some reason, so I never held a grudge against that. I just wished I had pried around more and found out what was going to happen so I could be there for Itachi when he needed me.
Three nights in a row he came over for dinner. He would then run home briefly to tuck Sasuke into bed as I tucked in Naruto, and then a couple hours later, Itachi would return, and we'd stay up all night sitting on my bed, talking, watching movies, listening to music, holding hands, cuddling…
On the third night, however, it was storming outside. Ita said the Uchiha were sending him on a mission with Shisui so I wasn't expecting him that evening. Naruto came into the house soaked after training all afternoon. I dunked him into the bathtub and made him a hot bowl of soup to warm him up. But still, Naruto started sneezing and came down with a cold, so I put him to bed early.
I was in the living room reading when I heard a knock on the door. When I answered it, I was shocked to find a soaked Itachi decked out in his ANBU uniform, and he had taken his mask off.
"Ita?" I asked as I let him in, "I thought you said you were on a mission."
"I was," Ita said softly. He shivered violently as he stepped in so I ran upstairs to grab him a towel so he could dry off.
"Naruto's upstairs asleep," I explained, "he caught a cold and I don't want to wake him, so we'll have to keep quiet."
Itachi nodded as I rubbed his hair with the towel, messing it up on purpose. Normally Ita would push my hand away, laughing, but this time he remained still, unmoving. His glassy eyes stared down at the ground and he pressed his lips together tightly.
"Ita…?" I asked.
"Shisui's dead," he responded.
I froze, absolute shock taking hold of me.
"What?" I asked a little loudly, dropping the towel in my hand. I stared at Ita, motionless.
"The river…he jumped in…killing himself…" Ita tried to hold it together, "Ari, he's dead!"
No…no, no, no…this couldn't be happening…!
"H-he can't be…" I muttered. At that, Ita broke down, covering his face. I stiffly brought him up to my room and closed the door so Naruto wouldn't wake up, and the two of us sat on my bed, holding each other and crying.
"I tried to stop him…! I was too weak…I'm sorry…!" he sobbed as I stroked his hair, balling.
"It's not your fault…!" I wept. We remained there, holding each other and crying for an hour. After a while, we had finally calmed down enough to pull apart. I reached over and grabbed some tissue, blowing my nose and eyes. I offered some to Ita, but he turned me down, covering his mouth as he shook and breathed heavily, trying to regain his composure.
"Does Saya know yet…?" I asked, but Ita shook his head and closed his eyes tightly.
"No one does," he managed, "it just happened…"
"Oh my God…" I sighed heavily. There was more I wanted to ask him, but I didn't want to upset Itachi any more so I just left him be. "Well…have you had anything to eat yet? I have leftovers from dinner…and Naruto got grounded yesterday so there's plenty of cake left."
Itachi looked up at me and gave me a puzzled look, "you grounded Naruto?"
I rolled my eyes. "The only thing I can take away from him is food," I explained, "and he was caught trying to graffiti the Hokage's office."
Ita let out a soft chuckle and said, "my, my, aren't you a strict mother."
I shoved him lightly but smiled as I went to the kitchen. There, that was my Itachi shining through.
When I returned to my room, I had two pieces of cake and a heated up bowl of soup in my hands. Itachi gladly took the soup and shoveled it down, and then we dug into the cake together.
When we finished eating, Itachi was silent for a long time. I was too, but in the midst of the silence, I began to reach for the TV remote in hopes of getting our minds off the tragedy, but then Itachi finally spoke up.
"Ari?" he began, "can I ask you something?"
"What is it?"
"Why did you decide to spare Naruto?"
I froze and stared at Itachi for a long time. "What do you mean?" I asked.
"Well, pardon my rudeness but, if you killed him, you could free your father and reunite with him again," Itachi said, "I'm sure you know this, so what keeps you from doing so? And what keeps you from resenting Naruto?"
I sighed heavily. Somehow I knew he was going to ask me this eventually. "I'm not really sure," I admitted, "and I did resent him. It wasn't until a couple years ago that I finally went up and spoke to him. And, the night that I did…I was planning to kill him. But I couldn't…I don't know why, but I couldn't. Looking back, I know logically that if I were to free Dad, he would probably try to destroy the village like he did eight years ago, and I have too many ties here now to let that happen. But when I made that decision back then, the decision to protect Naruto…I can't tell you why I did. I just had a feeling."
Itachi nodded, "do you ever feel bad about not doing it? And to take Naruto in like you have? Don't you feel like you're putting yourself in a position that forces you to weigh the lives of two people you care about?"
"Why are you asking me this?" I responded sharply. Itachi turned away from me and sighed.
"I'm just trying to understand is all," he mumbled, "what you've gone through, that is…"
I narrowed my eyes at Ita. There was something he was keeping from me, but shrugging, I continued, "well…yeah. And it feels more like I'm weighing the life of my Dad over the entire village. It's so hard to decide on what's more important to you. My Dad is the man who helped give life to me. He raised me for as long as he could. But the village is where I grew up, and even though the village turned its back on my mom and resented my dad, it accepted me and took me in, and I just can't bring myself to let it fall to ruin. And then Naruto…even if Dad didn't go after the Leaf, Naruto would still be killed if he were freed, so it's like trying to decide who to kill, my father or my brother. There are times where I wonder if I made the right decision."
"Do you think you did?" Ita asked. I looked into his eyes; they were so full of concern and fear. He knew something that I didn't. I had a feeling there was a good reason behind Shisui's apparent suicide that Ita knew about. And I had a feeling that he wasn't just asking me these questions out of curiosity either. Ita asked again, "do you think it was the right decision? Choosing the village and your brother over your father?"
"As much as it hurts to give you an answer, yes," I said, "it's an impossible choice to make, but I think this just might be for the better."
Ita nodded and looked down, letting out a couple hums in response.
"You mind telling me what's wrong?" I asked.
"It's just everything that happened, is all…" Itachi answered quickly, "it's so hard to believe that this is actually happening."
"Yeah," I responded, understanding his pain. But I still had this nagging feeling… "Ita, is there something else going on that I should know about?" I asked, "I can't help but notice how distant your family has gotten lately. You and Sasuke are just about the only ones who leave the Uchiha clan's quarters nowadays, and with Shisui all the sudden…is there something going on in your family?"
"Hmph," Itachi responded, not answering me. I gulped hard. He would never admit it, but I knew that that was a yes. "Ari, can you promise me something?" Itachi asked, averting the question.
"Yeah, what?" I asked.
"Promise me…" Itachi turned to face me fully. He grasped hold of my hand and pulled it to his chest as he looked me in the eyes intently, "Just promise me that, no matter what happens you will just stay yourself and remember that I love you more than anything?"
"Ita…" I breathed, staring at the Uchiha in awe. I nodded feebly, "O-of course I will. And I will always love you, no matter what happens."
With that, Itachi leaned in close to me and gently pressed his lips against mine. This time, thankfully, I was ready and kissed him back. I put my hand on his cheek and we shared in a long, passionate kiss before we broke apart. Despite our sorrow and our pain, my heart fluttered in my chest with pure joy and I knew Shisui was smiling down on us as we shared our first real kiss.
And it was only a week after that when everything fell apart.
Itachi
"Do you accept this mission?" one of the village elders, Danzo asked. Itachi closed his eyes and grimaced. Danzo had asked, but he already knew the answer. Of course Itachi accepted the mission, what other choice did they have?
Itachi turned to leave, his mind set on finding one person.
On his way to meet him, Itachi was surprised and distraught to bump into Ari. The girl beamed when she saw him, making his heart sink.
"Hey there, handsome!" she greeted, running up to him, "What are you doing out so late?"
"Oh, just running some errands. The Hokage needs me for a mission," Itachi explained quickly. Ari raised her eyebrow.
"But we're still on vacation…" she thought out loud, "I thought the Hokage wasn't going to send us out until next week."
"Well, something came up that he needs a sharingan for," Itachi stated. Ari glared at him.
"Ita…you know you can tell me the truth, right?" Ari asked. Itachi grimaced. Ever since Shisui died, and probably even before, Ari had been suspecting that something was off. She wouldn't give him a break about it, and was constantly trying to get him to talk.
"I'm not lying!" Itachi swore. And really, he wasn't. He just wasn't telling the rest of the truth.
At that, Ari frowned and sighed, "Okay, if you say so…"
"What?" He asked, startled by Ari's sudden change in demeanor.
"You've been pushing away from me for the past week now," Ari said, "I understand you and your family have been going through a lot with Shisui, believe me, I know, I feel it too. And Saya's even worse right now, so I understand…but…we kissed that night and…you've hardly looked at me since."
"I'm sorry," Itachi apologized. He suddenly felt the weight of the world on his shoulders with everything that was about to unfold. If only it hadn't come to this…if only Ari could still love him after everything was said and done… "I've just had a lot going on right now. My whole family has been on edge. I don't mean to push you away."
Ari forced a smile and nodded, "I know. And it's unfair of me to feel this way; I know you have a lot going on. Just promise that you'll tell me the truth, no matter what, okay?"
Itachi nodded, "Okay." With that they shared an embrace and Ari gave him a quick kiss which he was too distracted to return. And with that, she left, and he went off to find Madara Uchiha.
"How did you know about me?" a masked Uchiha asked Itachi as he confronted the man.
"You were able to slip through Uchiha's defenses and even look at the stone in Nakano Shrine," he stated, "Only the Uchiha know that place. After that, I examined your actions and tried to understand who you are and what your goal is, Madara."
The man chuckled, "Well then this will be easy. You probably know that I hold a grudge towards the clan and the village."
Itachi narrowed his eyes and as he spoke, he knew he was passing a point of no return, "You must follow my conditions. I'll help you get revenge on the Uchiha, but you must not lay a hand on the village."
"Hmph," Madara groaned, "I guess I can't complain though. Is that all?"
"There is one other thing," Itachi said, "you must not lay a hand on Sasuke Uchiha."
Ari
Because of this "covert task" Lord Hokage had asked of Itachi, I was sent on the mission the following Monday alone. I trudged my way home afterwards. I hated going on missions alone as it was…but to go without Itachi after all this time was like running outside naked. We weren't a tag team like Haru and Kokoro or Kinkaku and Ginkaku that depended on having both pieces to the puzzle to function, thankfully, and the Hokage intended to keep us that way and keep us able to function independently. I understood that…but to be missing my handy dandy sharingan and my level-headed diplomat at my side just seemed wrong.
But there was another thing with Itachi that had been bugging me for over a week.
He had pulled away from me completely, shutting himself inside his clan's walls with the rest of the Uchiha. I didn't get it. I didn't know why he closed himself out so suddenly. And right after our first kiss too. Shisui's death had taken a toll on everyone, especially Saya and Ita, but this was just getting ridiculous.
Saya and I had also been drifting apart as friends recently. She had even gotten rid of her old trampoline. I would have taken it, but I didn't have a backyard, and I couldn't go on it without my best friend. Doing anything without her was like going on missions without Ita. I just felt naked. She got even worse after her brother's funeral. I had spent the night at her house the night before, trying to console her, but the best friend I had known since I can remember was a completely different person.
"I hate this place," she spat repeatedly most of the night. "I hate all of them; they did this to my brother."
"Saya, what do you mean?" I asked, "I know it's hard right now. Trust me; I blamed the village for Kushina and Minato's death for years. I was bitter and I couldn't understand why something bad had to happen to people I was so close to, but this isn't anyone's fault. It's a tragedy, but you will get through this. I'll help you."
"Oh, please, Ari!" Saya scoffed back, "you couldn't possibly understand my pain. This isn't just some freak accident; this shit has been going on since the day Konoha was founded! My family has been hated and scorned by the higher ups for forever and my brother had to pay the ultimate price for it…"
"Saya," I scolded, "the village does not hate you. The Uchiha are a well-loved clan of the Leaf who have protected our walls since the beginning. Look, I don't know what's going on with you, but—"
"How could you? You're just a street rat without a family!" Saya snapped back at me. I froze and backed away from her.
"Saya…" I said, hurt. She glared at me and continued to beat me down.
"I don't know why I've put up with your antics for so long; you don't belong in this world, so how about you just leave me alone! The Uchiha have no need for someone like you!" she screamed. The situation escalated into a screaming match and I ended up going home crying. My invitation to Shisui's funeral was revoked and I couldn't even say goodbye to one of my closest friends. I never saw Saya again after that.
I made a stop for lunch in a nearby town before I finished my track home to Konoha, I figure I wouldn't be getting back until after dark, so I made a call home to Naruto and told him there was a coupon for Ichiraku's sitting on my kitchen table and he could get dinner there but he wasn't allowed to stay out too late. I knew he would though, being Naruto, but still I figured it was worth a shot.
I passed through a shopping plaza thinking hard about the argument with Saya. Thinking hard about Ita. What had gotten into those two? Saya was one thing, we both had a hot temper and she had just lost her brother, I figure that after a couple weeks we'd be back on speaking terms again.
But Ita…there wasn't anything he didn't tell me, so to be keeping secrets from me and pushing me away all the sudden was a terrifying thought. The biggest fear I had, I tried to keep out of my mind. What if he really did resent me for being the child of the Kyuubi? What if he told his parents? Fugaku and several other members of the clan would surely want me dead. After all, thanks to Madara the Uchiha detested my father probably even more than their former rival clan, the Senju.
I sighed, there was just no way Ita would do that. I knew him well enough and those three nights he spent over at my house I had seen a different side of Itachi Uchiha. It was an Itachi with all of his barriers down, left completely vulnerable. That was the most sincere I think anyone could have ever seen him and the Itachi that had been roaming the streets of Konoha the past few days was not the real Itachi. He was much more guarded than usual. Something was bothering him, I knew that much, I just wish he could open up to me.
I passed a shop window to a jewelry store when something caught my eye. I paused and turned to look into the window. What I saw was a necklace with several gold pendants circling the chain were bordered by a silver ring. As I looked more closely at the necklace, I realized that there were two chains. A shopkeeper stepped outside and noticed me admiring the necklace.
"Do you like it?" he asked, then explained "that's a one-of-kind that we just got in this morning. It's called the Bonded Necklace. It's a pair of friendship necklaces that you give to someone special to you. Theoretically, it was intended for you to give the silver piece to your friend to symbolize how they are your support, your shield, and you keep the gold to symbolize that you are their heart, and you fill them with your love. Together, the two pieces are complete, and though you may be separated for miles, you two will always come together in perfect harmony."
I eyed the necklace in awe. That necklace was perfect for Itachi. I turned to him and asked, "how much?"
I cleared my wallet when I bought the necklaces along with a pair of earrings and some chocolate for Saya, but I was pleased. Saya had just gotten her ears pierced and had had her eye on a pair of diamond hearts at the jewelry store in Konoha which she was saving money for, and these earrings were very similar and, in my opinion, even prettier so I figured she'd love them. The chocolates were for that extra push to get Saya to forgive and forget the whole fight. And the necklace…I was most excited about that. I had promised Itachi that I would love him no matter what and that I'd never forget how much he cared for me, and this necklace could become a tangible testament to that.
I put the gold necklace on and looked in the mirror in a bathroom just before setting out the rest of the way home. I wore a v-neck shirt and the gold sparkled against my collarbone. Regardless if Ita liked his silver necklace or not, I didn't think I was ever going to take mine off! I tucked Ita's necklace neatly into the box it came in. There was a poem that came with it which I thought was cute, so I left that in the box too. I trotted the rest of the way home. It was late at night when I finally arrived at Konoha's gates. I was really supposed to report to the Hokage immediately upon returning, but I figured it was best to make a stop at the Uchiha's quarters first.
Part of me wishes I hadn't.
The first odd thing I noticed when I walked through the miniature town that made up the Uchiha's neighborhood was that the streetlights weren't on. The moon rose high in the sky and everyone should have been in bed. But still…the lights always lit the street at night, and it was near impossible to navigate towards Saya's place.
But then I turned the corner. I pulled Saya's earrings and chocolate out of my pack as I neared her house, but when I looked up, I dropped both items and my knees began to buckle.
"What the…?" I breathed. Before me were at least a dozen corpses, blood spilling out of each of them. My stomach began to turn and my chest grew hollow as my breathing quickened. What was this?
"Saya…?" I called out nervously, passing the corpses quickly, but as I passed them, I was confronted with at least twenty more bodies. Itachi and Sasuke lived two streets over off of the main street in their neighborhood, if there were bodies over here…just how many…?
"Saya!" I screamed and broke out into a sprint the rest of the way to her house. People were hanging out of windows, by doorways, I gulped hard trying to push away what was possibly awaiting me. As I neared their front yard, I broke out into sobs when I saw Saya's mom lying in the grass, lifeless. The door to their house was open and I ran in. It looked as if no one was home.
No one living, anyway.
"Saya! Where are you?" I called out.
No answer.
I looked in the living room, the kitchen, the backyard. She was nowhere to be found. I looked up the stairs and took a deep breath, and treaded slowly up to her room. The door was closed. I knocked on it, but no one answered. The door was locked so I kicked it down and walked in.
And there she was.
Lying in her bed, her head hanging off of it just like she did when she listened to music, her eyes wide open, this was a normal position for Saya to be found in.
The only difference now was her eyes glazed over gazing lazily at the floor, her cheeks stained with tears, her gorgeous curly hair matted to her head and her entire body and sheets of her bed were covered with her own blood.
I dropped the earrings and the chocolates again, fell to my knees, and screamed.
"SAYA!" I cried, my hands gently grasping her head as I pulled it close. "SAYA! I'm sorry, I'm SO SORRY!"
This wasn't happening…this couldn't be happening…! Was Ita dead too?
"Oh GOD!" I sobbed. I wanted to see Ita again. I wanted to make sure that he and Sasuke were still alive. They at least had to be! They had to!
Sniffling, I looked back at my best friend for the last time as pushed her so her head rested on her bed and I closed her eyes. "I'm sorry, Saya," I whimpered, then left her house and sprinted straight for Itachi's.
"ITA!" I screamed, banging on the door of their house, "Itachi! Mikoto! Fugaku-Sensei! Sasuke! SOMEONE ANSWER THE GOD DAMN DOOR!"
"You need something?" an all-to familiar voice asked from behind. I froze and turned to see Itachi decked out in his ANBU armor. His eyes gazed at me with a cold gaze I had never seen before. I sighed in relief and began to weep as I ran up to him, embracing him and cried, "Thank goodness you're alright!"
But as I held Itachi's stiff body, as he refused to wrap his arms around me, horror flashed in my mind and I pulled away, looking up at him.
"Ita…?" I asked.
He said nothing, only glaring at me with hard, cold eyes.
"Ita, say something!" I pleaded.
"You should get out of here if you know what's good for you, demon," he said in a monotonous voice. I backed away from him slightly and trembled. Demon…? Oh no…don't tell me that he…
"Itachi," I said in a low voice, "did you…?"
Itachi grasped the hilt of his katana as if he intended to strike me and I braced myself. I wasn't going to dare to fight back. But he paused and instead turned away. He turned back at me and said, "I'm sick of the Uchiha. It was time to put an end to their pitiful show. Now get out of here before I kill you too."
With that, he took off. I froze, staring at him. He spoke in that same monotone, but as he finished his sentence, his voice broke slightly, as if the real Itachi was pushing through the mask. In that moment, I knew this wasn't just Itachi being "sick of the Uchiha". There was something else going on. And I knew that it was that same something that caused Ita to distance himself from me, Shisui to kill himself, and Saya to break all ties with me as her friend.
Maybe the village really was after the Uchiha.
Or maybe it was the other way around and Itachi was ordered to stop them.
"WAIT!" I called after Itachi, taking off. He was already out of the village and into the forest which led out of the Land of Fire, but with my speed, it didn't take long for me to catch up to him. I hid my chakra signature and snuck up from behind, tackling Ita to the ground. We tumbled and struggled as we fell through the trees and to the ground, both of us taking a nasty blow.
"Get OFF OF ME!" Itachi grunted, "And stay the hell away from me!" Itachi pulled me off and leapt back to his feet.
I sat up on my knees and cried, "Why did you do it?"
Itachi froze and turned back at me, and in that horrifying monotone, he said, "I needed to test me limit. My visual prowess has grown far too powerful for me to remained confined to this clan, this village. The Uchiha were so arrogant, thinking of themselves as the best, when really so few of them were too afraid and too weak to bring their sharingan to the next level: the Mongekyo Sharingan. That's why I killed Shisui."
"You killed him…?" I asked, dumbfounded. I then narrowed my eyes, "Cut the bullshit, Itachi, you and I both know that that's not true."
"You think you know me," Itachi stated coolly, "you scorn everyone who judges you because you claim they know nothing about you, about your past, about your father, and yet you walk around thinking you can read everybody like an open book. But you miscalculated, you thought that I was a gentle man who loved you, but who in this world could love a half-breed street rat such as yourself?"
At that, the tears began to fall from my eyes. I never once thought Itachi would ever call me a half-breed or a street rat…and here he used both in the same sentence. "Y-you killed them all? Even Sasuke?" I asked, my anger boiling over. Was this really all him?
"Sasuke is still alive," Ita said quickly, sorrow pushing through his voice. I jumped at his mild change in tone. Ita then recovered his monotone and explained, "I need him to grow stronger and obtain the same eyes as I do, so one day I can take his eyes for myself and achieve a new power."
"That's a lie," I spat, "that's a filthy, upright lie, you bastard. You promised me that you would tell me the truth!"
Itachi turned away, "Hn."
"See? You're humming again!" I shouted, near hysterics. I desperately tried to cling to any shreds of my Ita to hold onto, to keep him by my side and away from this evil Itachi that stood before me.
"You are so pathetic," he said, "after everything I've done, you still try to hold onto me, thinking that there is a part of me that was the friend to you which I pretended to be? Why are you trying so hard?"
"Because I know that you weren't pretending!" I protested, "If anything, you're pretending now! You promised you would always tell me the truth! So why are you lying to me now?"
"I think its best that you go back to the village," Itachi said quietly, avoiding eye contact with me, "leave now before I have to kill you. Please."
I let out a choked sob, balling my hands into fists. I reached into my pack and grabbed hold of the box with his necklace. As I did, it began to rain.
"Fine then, leave for all I care!" I screamed at him, "and TAKE THIS!" I chucked the box at him as hard as I could. It bounced off his back and landed in the mud. Itachi turned around, stunned and bent over to pick up the box.
"What's this…?" he wondered aloud.
"It's a present for you," I explained, then gestured to the gold necklace round my neck, "it's supposed to go with the necklace I'm wearing. It was supposed to be a symbol of our friendship. I don't care what you do with it, but I have no use for it so you might as well just take it!"
Itachi opened the box and stared at me with wide eyes. He then closed it, turned back around, and leapt into the trees, leaving me forever. I stood there, staring at where he had once stood. I began to hyperventilate as I panicked, still sobbing. I grew so upset and distraught that through the tears, I fell to my knees and began vomiting. In the distance, I heard the shouting of shinobi.
"I think he went this way…!"
"Look! It's Ari! Is she down?"
"Ari," the Third Hokage's voice said. With nothing left in my stomach, I dry-heaved, but managed to look up at the Hokage with my pitiful, tear-stained face. The Hokage stared at me with sad eyes, the same ones he looked at me with when he restrained me the night my father attacked the village. He always seemed to be at my side when tragedy would strike.
"He's gone…" I whimpered, "he's really gone…!"
"Ariala, I am so sorry you had to witness this," the Hokage knelt down beside me. I covered my mouth and closed my eyes. My whole world was falling apart all over again. I broke out into even more uncontrollable sobs and screamed.
It was a month before the funerals finally finished. Things slowly began to return to normal. I was assigned missions either solo or with Kakashi if the mission was for ANBU, but I still felt empty without the other half of the Ultimate Tag Team, I still felt naked without my three best friends surrounding me.
I tried my best to mask my sorrow from Naruto, the little boy had no idea what had happened. Part of me wanted to keep it that way. His smile was the only thing that kept me going for a while.
Then on one particular evening, I was walking home from the grocery store. I had left Naruto home alone and had gone out to get some materials to make ramen. Master Ichiraku was on vacation and his shop had been closed all week, so I thought I'd treat Naruto to my recipe, which had become just as good as Ichiraku's, in my opinion. And I figured out how to sneak some veggies into it without Naruto noticing. As I passed the playground where I first met Naruto, I saw another lonely boy sitting out on the dock overlooking the lake. I stopped and watched this boy.
"Sasuke…" I said aloud. That poor little boy. As much as he and Naruto fought at dinner that one night, and as mean as he had been, Sasuke was still such a sweet sweet kid. And now here he was, suddenly alone in the world.
I set the groceries down by the swing and walked out to the dock.
"Sasuke?" I asked.
Sasuke stiffened and turned to glare at me. He had his brother's dark and gentle eyes, but now those eyes were filled with an indescribable amount of anguish and hatred.
"What do you want?" he asked. I sat down next to him, my feet dangling over the water.
"I haven't seen you in a while, how's school going?" I asked. Sasuke eyed me suspiciously.
"It's fine," he shrugged, "kind of boring, really."
I laughed, "that's what Ita always used to say…"
At that Sasuke shut me off and glared out to the lake, his body stiff as a board. Oooh…I really shouldn't have said that.
"Well, what I really came here for was to see how you were doing," I started, "I know how I felt when I lost my parents. It was pretty lonely."
"What's your point?" Sasuke barked, "They're all dead and that's that. There's nothing I can do about it but move on."
"My point is, Sasuke," I said, "that you don't have to feel as lonely as I did. You still have me, you know, and I can help you through this."
"Maybe I don't want your help," Sasuke stated, "maybe I don't want anyone's help. Maybe I just want to be left alone. Maybe I don't need anybody!" His voice started escalating until it cracked slightly. He heaved, his little shoulders trembling. I subconsciously placed my hand to my necklace, thinking of Ita. I missed him so much and desperately wished this were only a horrible nightmare or some kind of genjutsu. I couldn't even imagine what turmoil Sasuke must've been feeling.
Instinctively, I pulled Sasuke into a hug, allowing tears to fall from my eyes, "It's okay to miss them, you know. Your parents, even your brother. And it's okay to cry…"
At first Sasuke was silent, but he began shaking and broke out into sobs. I held him tightly and stroked his soft hair.
"I hate this…!" he cried, "I wish this never happened! I just want to go home!"
"I know, honey, I know," I whimpered, trying to stay strong for him, "it's hard, but for right now, you can come home with me."
Sasuke paused and pulled away, wiping his eyes. His lip quivered as he asked, "R-really?"
I nodded, "you can come over for dinner if you want and you can spend the night. Naruto is coming over too, so you two can play if you want to, but you don't have to. But you boys both need to get along, alright?"
Sasuke gave me a feeble smile and nodded, "Okay…that sounds kind of nice."
I wiped the tears from his eyes and kissed his forehead before taking his hand to lead him home. As we walked, Sasuke spoke up, "hey, Ari?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm sorry for beating up Naruto…" Sasuke said sadly, looking down, "I feel really bad about that…do you think he'll forgive me?"
I chuckled lightly to myself, "sweetheart, Naruto already has."
At that, Sasuke beamed. But sadly, that was the first and the last time since the massacre that I saw such a genuine smile on Sasuke Uchiha's face.
