Summary
In which they realize that they care more than they ever imagined...
A/N: In this chapter, there's a little more of that romance stuff you guys have been asking about. I hope this ties you all over somewhat. I'm just kidding! I've been wanting them to smooch it out for ages now! Sooo... Let's see what I can dish out! Shameless fluff ahead. But before that, lots of drama! Quick update, by the way.
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When Itachi entered the next village with Kagome cradled in his arms, he got a couple of suspicious looks, but was otherwise ignored. He headed straight for a small clinic he knew existed to treat injuries for ninja that weren't exactly... welcome in hospitals. Swinging the door open, he made his way inside, glancing around and breathing a sigh of relief that there was no one else in the room. What would they think when they saw the infamous Itachi Uchiha stumbling in here, looking like he'd been through a war zone, and holding a teenage girl to him like it was the end of the world?
The receptionist, whom happened to be the doctor's wife, glanced up and pinned him with a look. "Ah. It's you. You're not the one that normally comes in here needing medical attention. Usually it's your part... ner..." She'd just noticed the bundle of dark clothes he was clinging to and the visibly distressed look in his normally blank eyes.
"Please... Help her." The woman was on her feet and skidding around the desk as she assessed the pale girl. During their fast-paced trip, he'd continually noticed that she was getting worse. A short stop had confirmed his fears. Madara had poisoned her when he'd managed to stab her, and it was working quickly through her system at an alarming rate. He couldn't understand why her powers weren't trying to eliminate the threat, or even healed it already, then groaned when he realized that she'd used every bit of her energy to purify the older Uchiha. It had taken everything, and now she was left without any kind of defenses. He'd forced her to swallow an anti-toxin that would hopefully stave off the more brutal effects, but her body hadn't taken it well. Half-way to the village, and still unconscious, a trail of blood had started trickling from her mouth. In a panic, he'd performed emergency medical ninjutsu to the best of his ability with what little chakra he had left. Now, he needed an expert. He needed someone to save her.
"This way. Do not jostle her anymore than you have, boy! Here!" the woman, Mitsune, if he remembered correctly, snapped out orders that he numbly followed, "Lay her here! HOKU! GET IN HERE!" Itachi settled Kagome as gently as he could onto a gurney, not wanting to let go of her quite yet. Manuevering his hands just slightly, he managed to slip the Shikon no Tama from around her neck without the other woman noticing. The last thing he wanted was to expose something so potentially dangerous to anyone else.
An older man stumbled into the room, took one look at the situation, and immediately melted into a professional mode. Brushing Itachi aside like he was nothing, he started taking the priestess's vitals and shook his head. "She's been badly poisoned, depleted energy, punctured kidney. She needs to be stabilized or she'll go into sceptic shock." All of the symptoms processed through Itachi's mind, but his body wouldn't respond. She was that bad? Kidneys could be replaced if it got too bad, right?
The next thing he knew, they were wheeling her into the ER room and shoving him out the door. "You have to wait here! We'll update you when we can, boy!" Mitsune gave him an extremely severe look, "And I will want to know how you dragged this poor young lady in here so messed up!" With that, she slammed the door shut and flipped on the light indicating they were working.
Itachi stood there, for once at a loss, and did what any sane person would have done.
He started praying. Hard.
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Almost two hours later, Mitsune and Hoku shook their heads and had to wonder how the girl had lived as long as she had. Her health was quickly slipping away from them and at this point, there was nothing more they could do. Her kidney was too far gone.
"Please... if someone can hear me. Either let this poor girl pass on, or give her the strength to live!" Mitsune prayed, asking, hoping that someone would hear her plea.
A few minutes later, the younger girl's condition suddenly stabilized and she started glowing in an eerie way. For her vitals to suddenly pan out and normalize in such a way was medically impossible, but she and her husband weren't going to complain. It just meant that they wouldn't have to inform the young man wearing a hole in their waiting room that his companion hadn't survived.
'This girl... she's certainly not normal.' The pinkish glow died down, leaving both medical experts in awe. How had she done that? 'Is her chakra... self-healing? Is that even possible?'
"Everything's... normal. She's... going to be fine," Hoku choked out, eyes wide and watching their delicate instruments take measurements.
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Itachi paced, worrying a hole in his brain as he blearily eyed the door to the ER room. They'd been in there for almost two hours, and the former heir could not sleep! Not when she might possibly slip away from him in the night. If he could, he would do anything to save her. He growled under his breath, kicked one of the chairs, and plopped down in it as he put his face in his hands.
He needed for her to be okay.
With nothing to do, and the waiting slowly driving him insane, he pulled the fabled Jewel of Four Souls from his pocket and turned the necklace over in his hands. So much power was contained in such a tiny bauble, and he knew of no forseeable way to access it. Not without dire consequences being wrought on him and Kagome.
'Please...'
'You... regret... You... feel helpless...'
He stared down at the Jewel, the faint glowing pink surface almost taunting him as the whispers of promised power penetrated his hazy mind. He knew that he was slipping in and out of reality; he hadn't been able to sleep at all, guilt wracking his mind. If only he'd been more forceful. If only he'd been faster! Stronger! Better! He could have walked away so many times! He could have prevented her injury, her very involvement, if he'd only been more mentally prepared!
But he'd been selfish and wanted her with him.
'You wish to become better... stronger... I can give you that power...' He wasn't sure what disturbed him more; the fact that he could coherently hear a voice speaking in his mind, or the fact that he was seriously considering the proposition.
"You... You're supposed to protect her. She's your guardian," Itachi whispered, staring unseeing down at the small marble in his hand.
'I can help you... You can have the power to save her... All you have to do... is wish...'
"... I wish..." he started, but cut himself off when the Jewel began to glow brilliantly in his palm. The smell of burning flesh hit his nose a second later, and he hissed as he dropped the delicate looking gem. A small imprint of where it had been laying was cauterized into his palm. It plunked to the ground, rolled for a moment in the direction of the ER room, then simply stopped. The light vanished as quickly as it had begun, and the Uchiha realized with growing horror that he'd almost done the worst thing that he could have imagined.
He'd let the voices coax him. He'd let them in and they almost convinced him that wishing to be stronger was the only way to help Kagome.
Shakily, he got himself back under control, pulled out a scrap of fabric, and scooped up the innocent pink jewel. He didn't want to touch it with his bare hands again. Roughly binding it in the fabric, he shoved it into his weapons' pouch and sat back to wait some more.
"... Damn fucking jewel!"
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Mitsune gasped when Kagome's eyes suddenly snapped open and she took a deep breath.
"No... Don't wish... It's all... lies..." she murmured before those haunting blue eyes slid shut again and she fell unconscious again. "Ita... chi..." The older woman rose to her feet and automatically headed towards the door. Pulling it open, she poked her head out and noticed the other teen's shaky appearance outside. He looked terrible.
"Boy." His head snapped up, dark eyes wide in fear as he darted to his feet. Between one heartbeat and the next, he was standing in front of her, the look on his face speaking volumes.
"How is she?"
"Alive. Sleeping, but she'll definitely live," Mitsune sighed, running a hand through her hair and pulling the door open a little more. "She woke up for a second, called for you, and went back to sleep. Come in here." Itachi nodded and brushed past her, heading straight for the bed that held the fragile looking priestess. "I have just a few questions."
"... Fine. Ask them."
"Is she a ninja?"
"No. Kagome is a civilian. She's not trained to kill."
"Her chakra..." Itachi swung his gaze to her sharply, the faintest impression of a Sharingan swirling in them. "Is she self-healing?"
"... I don't know. All I do know is that she can heal."
"That... explains it. She was going to die, but her chakra repaired the worst of the damage somehow. We'd already extracted and neutralized the poison, but her kidneys had shut down by then. She should have died, and yet, here she is, breathing normally and nothing wrong." She showed him the charts and the way her vitals had been monitored earlier. By those accounts, Kagome should have been dead.
'Perhaps... starting a wish had jolted the Jewel enough to give her a boost,' Itachi thought, remembering the troublesome little marble stowed in his weapons pouch. He refused to share that kind of information with Mitsune and her husband though.
"How did she end up this way? She didn't get involved in that shady organization that you're in, did she?" The severe quality of the older woman's voice became downright hostile. It wasn't a secret that she didn't like the Akatsuki, but she was indebted to Pein and was considered their emergency medic if it was ever needed.
"No! I would never get her involved with them!" Itachi protested, a scowl flittering acorss his face before he calmed down again. "I left them. She got caught in the crossfire. Now I'm helping her. End. Of. Story." Mitsune knew she wasn't going to get anymore answers from the stoic teen, but still...
"You... left?" Itachi merely nodded and gave her a look that screamed 'You're dismissed. Get. Out.' The medic shuffled out the door, sending him one last look. This one, though, had the impression of a grandmotherly smile.
"Good. That makes one of you. Don't go back." She departed, leaving the Uchiha with an odd sense of pride.
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It was several days later before Kagome was released. Not only did Itachi treat her like she was a fragile piece of porcelain, but Mitsune and Hoku babied her until she couldn't take it anymore.
Almost beaning the Uchiha over the head with a book, she annouced, quite loudly, that she was "Just fine, dammit!" and that she wasn't going to "Drop dead the moment they turned their friggin' backs!" It was safe to assume that the volatile prietsess was back to normal. The morning after the outburst, the doctors gave her the okay and the two teens headed out of the village.
Their destination: Konohagakure.
'Though a stop wouldn't hurt along the way,' Itachi thought as they entered a busy commercial village that had Kagome's eyes wide with wonder.
"Is this... your village? It's amazing!" she gushed, twirling around to see everything around them in excitement. There was so much to take in that she was getting dizzy just from trying. Itachi steadied her with an arm around her shoulder and laughed quietly.
"No. This is one that I've visited several times before, though. I knew you would like it. Kisame even stated as such," he replied, a melancholy feeling descending over them as they thought about the shark man.
"Was he... upset that you left?"
"... I doubt he was upset, but I did speak with him before the events took place. We agreed to disagree and go our seperate ways," Itachi sighed, running a hand through his hair as he thought about his former partner. Kisame had been swayed towards Madara's way of thinking for far too long, but he was also smart enough to see the former heir's point of view as well.
"We all have our own opinions, Itach. Ours are just different. I'll take your advice, though, and disappear for a while since you plan to tell all once you get to Konoha." With that, Kisame had walked away and allowed him to return to Kagome in one piece; where he later found out that Deidara and Sasori had checked up on her. He was going to incinerate the blonde the next time he saw him.
"Will you miss him?"
"Perhaps." They later stopped at a tea shop to eat and relax. The Sharingan user was sure that there wouldn't be a lot of time to take leisure once they got to his home village. The food turned out to be good, and their server wasn't overly clingy either. It was probably because she thought the two were on a date of some kind and chose not to interfere. Neither teen managed to pick up on that particular vibe though.
"I can't believe you were so worried about me," the priestess grumbled, rolling the Jewel around in her pocket absently. It had become a habit after Itachi had literally shoved the thing at her and demanded that she never let him hold onto it again. When she'd probed him for further information, he'd haltingly told her about the voices and showed her his palm. The shiny burn was still there, probably would be for quite some time, and she'd taken his word for it. He hadn't seen the little bauble since.
"I suppose I must confess that I overreacted a little," he replied, giving her a deadpan stare as he swirled around the dregs of his tea in his cup, "But you were on death's doorstep, so it was a valid concern."
"I guess since we're doing a bit of confessing, I really gotta tell you something," Kagome sighed, leaning into the booth comfortably and closing her eyes.
"Very well. I will allow you to indulge me," the Uchiha muttered sarcastically, bringing the cup to his lips and taking a sip.
"Heh. When I saw you in that drugstore, I honestly thought you were gay at first," the priestess replied casually, purposely waiting until he started swallowing before talking. Itachi immediately choked painfully, his tea going down the wrong way and a horrified look on his face.
"WHAT?" he managed to hack out. Kagome grinned serenely, rubbing his back in small soothing circles.
"I thought you were-!" His hand slapped over her mouth and glanced around to see if he'd drawn attention to their little corner.
"I heard you quite clearly the first time!" Itachi hissed out, glaring in annoyance at a passing man that sent him a reproachful look. Why, exactly, was he in love with this girl? He signaled for the check quickly, paid, then pulled the priestess out of the booth. Though his grip on her arm was firm, it wouldn't leave bruises. That was the last thing he wanted to do.
"Itachi? What-? Where are we going?" Kagome spluttered, tripping to keep up with the fast moving ninja.
"You'll see," was his cryptic reply. A few blocks down, he turned them into an alley and pushed her against the wall. The priestess gasped and stared up at him in growing confusion.
"Itachi? What are you doing?" she spluttered, swallowing when he caged her in with his arms.
"Proving a point."
"What poi-!" Her words were swallowed when the former heir's mouth settled on hers. Her hands shot up to his arms in shock.
'… What? What is he- Why is he kissing me?' Kagome thought faintly, following instinctively as he gently coaxed a response out of her. 'This is… nice.'
Wrapping his arms around her waist, he pulled her close, recalled every single seduction technique he'd been forced to learn during his career, and poured his soul into the kiss. The sheer emotion behind the act left the priestess breathless. Itachi was always so careful with his feelings. He rarely let them show, though it was becoming increasingly obvious that he bared more around her than anyone else.
Was he really feeling all of this? For her?
'This is... right. It feels right.' Then her mind shut down when he bit her lip and soothed the sting with his tongue. That felt good. Really good.
The fact that she responded with as much vitality as the personality she showed him every day only encouraged him, and before long he was losing control of the situation and pulling away rapidly, trying to catch his breath as he trailed small kisses down her throat. "Itachi..." It gave him all sorts of wicked ideas when she said his name like that. What he wanted to do was to take her somewhere private and give her absolutely no reason to doubt that he might possibly want to walk away from something with her. But...
He leaned back, resting his forehead against her shoulder as they caught their breath. "I'm not gay, Kagome. I think you know that now."
"Yeah... It was just a joke. I didn't think you'd take it so... seriously," she managed to get out in between breaths. He smirked and turned his head, letting his tongue trail up her shoulder to just underneath her ear. The priestess gapsed. "Stop that! It tickles!"
"You're ticklish everywhere," the former heir murmured, ghosting his hands up her sides and getting a strained giggle. He froze, though, when that lifted her shirt just enough to reveal a faint scar on her hip. And he had to wonder where she'd gotten it, because if someone in this world had done the deed, he was going to hunt them down and gut them the most painful way he could come up with.
"Itachi?"
"You got this... before you came here, right?" His hand spanned the width of the star-shaped mark, truly wondering how she'd even survived such an injury without bleeding out. Kagome nodded and bit her lip.
"You remember me telling you about when I first found out that I had the Jewel?" At his nod, she continued, "That's how I found out. I was born with it inside me, and when the well activated for the first time, Mistress Centipede dragged me into the past, later got a hold of me, and pretty much took a chunk out of me to get the Jewel. I think when my powers came to life, it repaired most of the damage, but I wasn't going to be left without a scar."
"And that explains the fear of bugs."
"It's not bugs in general. Just specific ones." At his deadpan look, she muttered, "You try getting attacked by a naked centipede lady that's the size of a train and see how you handle it!"
The Uchiha blinked, wondering how they'd managed to go from making out to talking about naked centipede women. "This conversation is getting a little odd for my liking."
"Yeah... What do you want to talk about then?" Kagome asked, slowly trying to push away from the wall that he'd trapped her against. The gleam in his eyes gave her a pretty good idea of the subject. Instead, he leaned back down and brushed his mouth against hers in a caress that sent tingles up her spine.
"I don't want to talk, Ka-go-me." No, he'd much rather kiss her seneless again. Which is exactly what he did. He wanted to leave her as breathless as possible with no doubts in her mind that he definitely wanted her.
"Itachi?" the priestess murmured, swallowing the urge to groan when the hand resting at her hip started to trail up her back, pushing her more firmly into his body as his lips whipsered down the side of her neck again, "What... What am I to you?"
"Everything," he replied simply. He wasn't about to mince words at this point. "You have been the most constant thing in my life recently. Someone I know I can rely on when things become difficult. You are the reason I am even here today; the reason I changed, and for the better. I believe, had I not met you, I would have gone through with all of my original plans, and eventually, I would have died. In a way, Kagome, you saved me from myself." 'Just like how you claim I saved you.' The Uchiha glanced at her when she sucked in a deep breath and stilled. Her blue eyes were regarding him apprehensively and she pushed at his shoulders. Biting the insde of his cheek, Itachi took a small step back, but not far enough for the girl to break out of the circle of his ams. Had he said something wrong?
"Itachi... I gave my heart to Inuyasha once, and he shattered it without remorse," Kagome started, her voice holding a quiet quaver when she thought about her hanyou friend. He merely watched her, completely unmoved, and she finally understood the idea of someone seeing your soul through your eyes. She could see everything in his.
It terrified her. No one had ever felt that much for her before. Sure, Inuyasha had been her best friend, and he cared about her, but she'd never seen the play of emotions that were literally shining in the Sharingan user's sharp gaze. "I just... I don't know what I can give anymore. I mean, I really like you! Don't get me wrong! I'm just..."
"Afraid?" he answered quietly for her, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "You can take on Madara Uchiha without a problem, but you're afraid of starting a relationship with me?" She bit her lip and dropped her gaze shamefully, unwilling to see the hurt flash in his eyes.
"Fighting is different. You know that," she grumbled, almost moving with his hand as he stroked her cheek in a gentle motion. "This... is something so fragile, I'm scared to break it. I don't want to go back to being lost like that again."
"I know. I won't push you, but I'm not giving up either. Ever." 'Not anymore.'
"Just... give me some time. I need to think," Kagome finally sighed, inwardly relieved when he nodded a moment later and pulled her out of the quiet side street. For the rest of the day, he showed her the town with all of its' sights and smells. She smiled, not as brightly as before, but still wide enough to put him slightly at ease. She wasn't rejecting him, but she hadn't accepted him either. It was a fragile balance, and he was going to do everything in his power to shift that in his favor.
'Time. That's what she wants, so I will give that to her.' Unfortunately, he truly didn't have that kind of time. Not when they were so close to the end of their journey. The moment they entered the ninja village, their time would run out and their fates would be in the hands of someone else. Someone he wasn't sure would be willing to listen to his side of the story and believe it like Kagome had.
"Two days from now, you will be able to see my home village. I'm not exactly welcome, but I will guarantee your safety above all else, should things become... messy," Itachi explained, reaching up and stroking a hand languidly through the priestess's long dark hair. She bit her lip and gazed up at him in question.
"Are you sure it's a good idea? To confront your village like this?" She was worried; worried that these people wouldn't bother hearing what the former heir needed to say. If they tried to attack, she would be there to defend him. They'd made it this far together.
"All I ask," he murmured, letting the hand that had been petting her hair drift down to her shoulder. The moment it touched, he pulled her into his side and leaned down to bury his nose in the scented strands, "is that you have faith in me, Kagome. I will not let you fall."
Kagome blinked and nodded, her voice stuck in her throat. Despite her hesitation, she couldn't help but think that the next few days were going to test them even more. It scared her to realize it, but she was sure she'd already fallen.
For him.
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A/N: And moving the plot along for one final confrontation and twist. I hope you guys have enjoyed this chapter, all filled with drama and sweetness and good tingly stuff. This chapter wasn't really originally planned the way it came out, but I feel that it went over fairly well too. Anyways, I appreciate comments, reviews, pointers, and all that good stuff.
Please review!