DISCLAIMER: This is purely a work of fan-fiction derived from the original story of Naruto by Masashi Kishimoto.
This is are-do of my original Chapter 5 actually. It was about 80% Mary-Sue material and terrible OOC-ness so I had to do a bit of tweaking. Trust me, it's only because I love my readers so much, okay?
Please R&R!
Once I had a Sister
Chapter 5
Best Tag-team
The bustling town of Konoha is a new and unfamiliar place. Haruna looks up at the tall buildings, squaring her shoulders as she wonders how she could fit in. Orphaned, with only the wolves that trot by her side for company, the rest of the townsfolk brush past the brunette child like water around a stone.
She is ushered into the Academy, told to join a class of other children who stare shyly at her and Haruna tries her best. But it's hard and the work is so different; she knows the senseis try to be kind, but even the simplest genjutsu seems a bit beyond her. No wolves are allowed inside the school, so after a while Haruna turns to playing games during lessons. She knows her parents and her siblings would be ashamed of her but can't quite bring herself to care.
"Has the Hokage talked to you yet?" one of the orphanage kids she shares the building with asks her while they wait in line for dinner.
"The Hokage?" she asks. The Hokage is the most important shinobi in the village. It is strange to think of someone so great talking to abandoned children like them.
Her companion nods. "Do you want to be a ninja? 'Cause the lady told me that they sometimes let the orphanage kids become ninjas."
"They do?"
"Yeah! Do you remember Usagi? He left and is in the ANBU now."
"ANBU?" Haruna repeats, cocking her head curiously. She shrugs. If anything, she'd rather play with her wolves.
iTi
One day, as the girl sits on a hill outside town, Haruna is surprised to see the Hokage himself walking up the grassy slope. She scrambles up as the old man makes his way towards her, defences up. When the man just looks at her for a long moment before sitting down beside her, she takes the chance to make her escape. The written seals snake their way across the grass before a puff of smoke brings a wolf at her side.
"Haruna," the man's voice was very quiet. "I just want to talk. Can you let the really nice wolf you brought go home now?"
Of everything the girl had thought the old man might say –and the fact that the man knew her name in the first place – it was so unexpected she only turned stunned eyes in reply, mouth agape. The old man regarded the small face for a moment before speaking again, patiently. "You're able to summon things already, Haruna?"
"They're just wolves… Hokage-sama." she remembers to add quickly. "Although I'm not supposed to bring them here anymore. Sensei said so."
"Well," Hiruzen leans back and raises his eyes to the skies. "The Kuchiyose is actually a high rank jutsu to use, did you know that?" There is no reply –she had never known that because it always seemed so easy – and the Sandaime continues, "How would you like to be in the ANBU, Haruna-chan?"
"ANBU?" She knows who they are now – and the fact that they are the elite of the elite. "But Hokage-sama, I'm only genin."
"I know someone who could use a good companion, you see." He watches as the girls dark head nods up and down to show she is listening. "Maybe your personality would do him good. You're used to taking care of other people, aren't you?"
Haruna wants to say otherwise but the Hokage is smiling kindly at her and looks so inviting that she shuts her mouth before the words come out. Beside her, the wolf she summoned is looking at her with bright, beady eyes and she knows it is listening too.
"You'll learn plenty of things in the ANBU, child. What do you say?"
Haruna decides to give it a shot. If the Hokage thinks she's good enough to get in, then she won't disappoint him. Two days after, she makes her way to the ANBU HQ, telling herself not to be daunted by the tall, awe-inspiring members around her.
Standing alone at the entrance, one hand clutching a paper bag, brown knapsack on his back and a familiar red and white fan on the back of his shirt, is the boy she is to be partnered with. He has tear-troughs forming under his eyes but he is polite and addresses her with respect.
"Hajimemashite. I'm Itachi." The boy says to her, extending a hand in greeting. He is younger, smaller but his eyes tell differently. He is hardly what she expected him to be; the boy had to be some three years younger than her unless she missed her guess. Had the Hokage wanted her to befriend this quiet kid?
Nevertheless she smiles and returns the gesture.
Itachi felt the ache in his head intensify a hundredfold as he stopped in his tracks. "I can see you, Haruna." He said shortly into the undergrowth beside him.
"Thanks - I did that on purpose" Haruna lied, stepping out from behind the stone wall she had been crouching under. Her intial plan had been to confront him as soon as he'd gone out but instead of taking the normal route home – towards the Uchiha compound west of the Hokage Tower – Itachi had gone south, heading for the closure of the forest.
"So this is the reason I've been doing solos for the past six months." She remarked, feigning reluctant involvement. "I think I deserve an explanation."
Itachi's voice was harder than he intended. "This is not your concern."
"Of course it isn't… Just like how it isn't my concern to know why you've just been asked if you were capable of annihilating your clan, right?"
"Haruna, please."
"I'm just curious…" she said innocently. Playing it delicately because Itachi almost never opened up when he wasn't meant to. "My baby teammate here's roaming the forest at night but that's not any reason to worry, of course."
"I already told you that you didn't have to know." Itachi replied quickly, moving forward and further into the forest. His mind was still reeling, he felt sick, he wanted so badly to release the burning at the backs of his eyes and just to sit in silence. Long, golden silence that stretched longer and longer, that he could find solace in.
"Don't lie to me Itachi." Haruna said, and there was something in her tone that stopped him, told him not to leave; warned him that things would worsen unless he told her what it was he was trying to hide. "You've never lied to me before so don't try it now."
Itachi had kept himself distant on purpose, because while he knew he was eventually going to have to eliminate one or the other and he was honourable enough not to pretend. He was an honest person, but withholding information wasn't the same as lying, and Itachi wasn't going to lie to them or himself by masquerading as a loyal shinobi or a dutiful clan member. Or a good teammate either.
"Haruna-san. They will not hesitate to kill you if you know this."
"They?" His tag-team partner's eyes narrowed; she would jump into this mess out of her own accord and threats meant nothing. " You mean your clan and village elders?"
Itachi looked away.
"So both of them have something to hide then." she concluded. "Thanks for letting me know."
Somewhere in the distance there was a howl; wolves venturing out as the moon waxed further with every passing night. There were dark circles under Itachi's eyes and Haruna couldn't help but notice the small scratches on his arms and she was reminded just how young, fragile, he was. Hell, she was young too and the world, which always seemed so conquerable when you knew what it felt like to hold a persons life in your hands, now seemed altogether far too big. Far too big for a thirteen year old having to consider genocide and his seventeen year old teammate trying to find a way to help.
"Oi. Itachi. Talk."
Itach's eyes flicked upwards; his mouth a tight line. "We are ANBU, Haruna. You cannot be expecting me to tell you."
"Yes I am, dammit." Itachi looked slightly surprised at her language but said nothing. "I'm trying to help. I'm your partner – in case you had forgotten."
"It is because of that I was hoping you would not attempt to ask..."
"Right - cause you're lying so much to everyone else, is that it?" She saw him flinch at her bluntness and almost felt guilty. Everyone else always spoke harshly to her young teammate, not her. After an awkward pause Haruna continued, changing her tone, "If you're doing this for my protection you know that doesn't work. You already know you can trust me."
Owlishly, Fugaku's son stared at his teammate for a long moment. Trust? He had both everyone's and nobodys' trust and that hadn't changed anything. He still had to shoulder the elder's manifold sins. Quietly, simply, Itachi answered her slowly.
"…In a coup d'état, you can't trust anyone, can you?"
Haruna's eyes widened; she understood it immediately. Itachi didn't say anything else. Opposite him, he could see his teammates' shoulders rise and fall as she told herself to breathe; to stay calm and stop the memories that the mention of war brought along with it. A rebellion. A military uprising against the government - movements that had brought the downfall of so many countries in the past. To think that there would be one here, in Konoha?
"So what are you going to do then? Stop it yourself?" She fixed a steady gaze on her partners' Sharingan eyes. "Don't think I don't know what that means Itachi."
Itachis' hands fell to his side like a leaf on the forest floor. "Can you think of anything else?"
Haruna frowned. "If most of this depends on your involvement, then why don't you just leave the village for a while?" she suggested at length, speaking as she turned the possibilities and alternatives in her mind furiously. "Until it dies down. Both sides seem to need you, right? If you aren't there, then they can't go ahead with their plans."
"Are you suggesting I run away?"And his impeccable composure did not hide the incredulity in his voice.
"If that means that no blood will be shed, then yes." She saw Itachi's shoulders sag and wished she had other ideas but her mind was blank and everything had gone black or white again. "No one would be able to do anything if you weren't there, right?"
Itachi sighed and shook his head. "My family will suffer if I were to leave. They will do everything they can to get information out of them." He told her with no small amount of regret and utter helplessness lacing the tone. "This has been building up since before I was born, Haruna-san. They won't stop because of my absence." Itachi was looking at him, dark eyes probing silently. There was a silence that followed his words, and before Haruna could think up a reply to them Itachi continued. "I… had a suspicion, that things were to turn out this way. Yet there are only those two options, my clan or the village. There is no other choice for me."
"So what are you going to do then?" she repeated the question. Time was running out as they spoke and dcisions had to be made.
"I… don't know..." He said finally. "I just don't know. I need to think this through."
"Itachi, you… aren't going to eliminate your clan are you?"
The Uchiha's pallid face went from pained to threatening tearfall and then nothing. All emotion seeped out like frost under a warm hand."If I have to," he said slowly, "I will."
Haruna paled momentarily but she was shinobi, ANBU, and the moment passed. Between them the forest sighed and a breath of melancholy made its presence felt.
.
First impressions are simple; Itachi is quiet, hardworking and slightly unsociable. Haruna on the other hand is loud, persistent and immediately takes the boy under her wing despite the fact that he already carries himself with the sure gravity of an adult and his skill rivals that of the ANBU nin already training them.
ANBU is the shinobi academy intensified a hundred-thousandfold and by the end of every day, Haruna is a walking mass of chakra exhaustion and aching muscles which she does her utmost to deny. The Hokage had asked her himself to watch over this Uchiha Itachi and since he could be a lot worse as a charge, she does her best to make sure he at least has someone to talk to.
Being a genius must be hard. "You need to stop being so awkward," she tells him, when they are left alone once again to practice what they have learnt. He's too easily swallowed up by the crowd and while he has come to stick close to her whenever anything involved polite society, she can't always be there talking for the both of them. "Say hi to people. Smile."
Itachi does as she suggests but Haruna only rolls her eyes because saying hi to her wolves wasn't the same thing.
Itachi obeys her. Haruna means well and is genuinely concerned for him most of the time, sometimes to the point of getting in trouble, being late to finish and such on his behalf. She is welcoming, and to a prodigy like himself, who the rest of the world shifts awkwardly around, it means a lot. She calls him her baby teammate, while Itachi calls her his friend.
Because friends after all, are rare in the world of the shinobi.
.
.
.
The Hokage was right to put the two of them together. Within the next few months they finally become members of the ANBU themselves, with tattoos etched on their shoulders and masks issued. Harunas' is a wolf, of course. Itachi dons a standard red one.
"You will be our youngest tag-team on the front lines," their commanding superior tells them. "I trust that you will not disappoint."
They make a name for themselves as a team, with Haruna leading and Itachi behind her. It is like clockwork, and unlike the rest of the ANBU, their cohesion is not forged out of neccessity.
.
.
.
The gates of the Land of Iron are closed and will remain shut until tomorrow morning. After delivering the message to the Daimyo, Itachi walks up to the bridge where Haruna is waiting with their gear, and says, "We have to spend the night here."
It was in the late afternoon; the sun wasn't to set for ages. Haruna heaves a deep sigh, "But there's nothing to do here though. We'll die of boredom before tomorrow."
They are both tired after the long journey and Haruna is only too happy to do as Itachi suggests and remains seated at the bridge while Itachi scouts the place. The Daimyos' town is a quiet, rustic place with equally quiet and rustic people. He comes up to her some minutes later and says the only thing vaguely interesting he saw was an opening for a photography store.
"Photography store?" Haruna scratches her head with a disappointed chuckle. "Really?"
"We have an afternoon with nothing to do though." Itachi remarks offhandedly. "I suppose we must just make do with what we have."
"Indeed mother," she replies with much exaggerated eye rolling. Itachi, who has seen it all before doesn't comment. Biting back a laugh at the idea, she informs her young teammate that the last time she took a photo "was when I was what, five?" Besides, since when did ANBU ever take photos? "We get masks for a reason you know…" Then she sees Itachi's face and with a good-natured snort says she wouldn't mind if Itachi wanted to.
"I think it would be useful to have a record of our team. We needn't show it to everyone." He reasons.
"Well," Haruna shrugs. "Why not?"
It's dark inside, and Haruna giggles at the funny man "with fish eyes" who holds the camera like it's some prized treasure. After some deliberation as to where to stand, they stand together, facing the lens. The camera flashes.
Itachi pays for it, sliding the coins across the counter while Haruna picks up the photo and laughs.
"You look like you're my little brother. A very, very serious one," she comments, because while she is grinning Itachi looks solemn beside her. "I wonder what your family photos are like."
On the way back to the village, Harunas' young teammate tells her about when they took a family photo when Sasuke was three. It had taken three tries because Sasuke had sneezed on the first one and his father had wanted to change his outfit. Haruna laughs along with him and says it was a good thing that they had a family portrait.
"Do you still have your one?" Itachi asks. Haruna shakes her head. After a pause, Itachi slips the photo into her hands. "If I show it to the others, they may become envious of me," he only says gravely, by way of explanation.
"I'll take good care of it," she assures him. It would make the dorm cell she stayed in a tad homier with it pinned on her wall.
.
Anxiety hung like a dark, impenetrable cloud; the silence was vacuum when Itachi told her his decision.
"The rebellion will not happen." He said after it, as if to console himself. Hie eyes were deep dark wells of sorrow. "Loyalty to village transcends all," he said in monoitone, repeating the familiar words ingrained into every person with a hitae-ate.
Haruna felt her hands clench and unclench as she fought to stay level. "You're not serious, are you?"
"This is a matter I would not joke with."
"Yeah?" she said loudly. "I kinda wish you were."
"My apologies," Itachi said. His hand was shaking. Slowly Itachi closed his eyes. There was a wave of feeling welling up inside but for once he didn't have the words to let them out. His heart was clenching as his decision burned in the back of his mind. He looked out into the fading dark, ready to let the matter drop when Haruna spoke,
"Then…" the words seemed dark and heavy in her mouth, "what if I did it?"
The younger boy had turned away from his teammate once the words were out of his mouth, but his head snapped back up immediately now. "I'm sorry?"
"I said," Haruna spoke slowly, deliberately, knowing full well the magintude of her words. "What if I did it? Instead of you. I could probably do it." Haruna knew Itachi was no child and had killed more men that jounin twice his age. But even so, something inside that years exposed to the darkest side of the shinobi world had been unable to rid just didn't want to have to see her teammate go through this. "You don't need to kill them."
"Please do not," Itachi's answer was short, simple, final. "There is no need for you to be involved in this."
"You're far too young to be thinking of genocide, Itachi-kun."
While there was no doubt that Haruna was capable, Itachi knew she harboured a fear, an innate hesitance to sever a life with her own hands. It hurt him to know that things were dark enough to have his bright-eyed teammate offer to kill someone on her own.
"They're all going to die either way, whether by my hand or not. There is no other alternative. Please, do not stain your hands for my sake."
"And what happens next? When you've killed your family and are the last one standing?" She watched as Itachi's hand shook. His eyes were dead, as was the voice in his throat.
"I will just have to live with it. I have no choice in the matter."
The sun rose, and the village was waking. From where they stood, she could hear the quiet morning sounds as the civilians shuffled back to life, blinking sleepily as laundry strung on high taut lines flapped with the breeze. This was peace – or at least what all shinobi put their lives on the line to fight for. Not a choice between genocide or the fourth ninja war.
Eyes shadowed,Haruna asked one last question. "When?"
For a second, his teammates' hazel eyes on his blurred dangerously and Itachi remembered just how tired he was of everything. He hadn't slept for the last week. "The day after tomorrow." He said, his voice low and in Haruna's ears, so unbearably sad, "When the moon is full."
There was a silence. "Man." Haruna said hollowly. "This place is messed up."
Itachi shrugged by way of answer, unwilling to say anything more.
"Don't worry little guy," she assured him when the youth turned to her quickly a while after, to remind her that this was meant to be classified information, "your secret's safe with me. Just…" she paused, reaching a hand out hesitantly before resting it on his shoulder. Thin but supple, they did not deserve to carry the deaths of his entire clan. "I have a responsibilty over you. You're not doing this alone."
She felt Itachi tremble but his hand found hers on his shoulder and stayed there. Haruna wanted to punch something, to drain her chakra summoning her wolves and set them on whoever was to blame for letting the world turn out as messed up as it was now. Naruto, he knew what it was like to be hated, to be isolated from the rest of the world and she had seen its effects first hand. That Itachi would accept this and even push everyone else away…
They walked away in silence. Above, a crow flew, its feather floating silently down.
.
.
.
"Foolish little brother. If you wish to kill me; hate me, detest me, and survive in an unsightly way. Foster your hatred. Run away, and cling to a life without honour. And one day, when you have the same eyes I do, come before me."
.
.
.
He headed for the Hokage's tower and found the Sandaime standing watch over the village.
'Is it done?" The man asked as Itachi knelt and fixed his eyes on the floor.
Itachi steeled himself before he spoke. "No, Hokage-sama."
The Saindaime remained still. "There are surviviors?"
"Yes." He whispered. "My little brother, Sasuke… Forgive me." He added, knowing that this was not planned and he did not yet know if this was able to be pardoned. The Hokage placed a hand on his shoulder, bade him rise. There was fear, regret and pain etched across a face far too young for it.
"What we have asked you to do, Itachi, is far worse than failing to complete this mission." The grandfatherly figure told him, hoping in some way to convey the gratitude he owed the boy for his sacrifice. "Sasuke will remain under my protection from this moment on."
"Thank you, Hokage-sama." There was blood still drying on his hands.
"The South Gate will remain unguarded for another ten minutes." Hiruzen informed him. Itachi's mission was not finished yet and he rose, numbly. "I can only hope that the future still holds brightness for you, my child."
Itachi disappeared as silently as he had come, leaving just the slightest trace of copper scent lingering in the room behind him.
.
.
.
It was a rule among shinobi to always, always have a back up plan. And with a mission of this magnitude, Itachis' rank and reputation as a shinobi did not undo the need to have contingency plans should he fail.
Danzou let out a near imperceptible hiss from where he stood under the eaves of the Tower. The moment Itachi chose not to kill his little brother he had failed the mission. There was no choice but to wrap this up before the sun rose that morning.
"Pursue Uchiha Itachi," he told the masked men waiting his command. "And eliminate him at all costs."
iTi
He had done it. He had thrown away his humanity, committed the unforgivable crime of slaughtering one's own brethren, he had cursed himself to a life bound in guilt. Itachi was running. Sprinting, stumbling, but never stopping. He had to run; run from the broken bodies of his victims, the corpses of his parents, the tears on his brother's face.
Mom, Dad… Sasuke… Everyone… Forgive me.
The bitter bile in his throat, the unshed tears, the loud, raw pain pent up inside that Itachi fought to contain had reached their limit. He stopped running just enough to fall on his hands and knees and throw up the contents of his churning stomach on the ground. His throat burned, his head throbbed, and his lungs ached. Fresh tears formed rivulets down his cheeks as he rammed his fist inside his mouth, trying and failing to stifle his sobs.
I'm so sorry… I'm sorry, I'm sorry I'm sorry –
A kunai whistled through the air. He turned his head just in time to have it hit the tree beside him with a loud thunk. Itachi whipped his read round, heart rate intensifying in an instant.
Moonlight streamed down the valley and in the ethereal glow the shadows in the trees seemed more pronounced. He saw a flash of metal and realised that his battle were not over. Years of training had honed instincts. He didn't want to have to fight after the nightmare he'd been through but if he'd just murdered his own kin he could do a lot more and a lot worse on any who intended to follow him.
The nin said nothing; silence was the language of every ANBU shinobi. His sharingan had enough chakra to pinpoint the faintly masked signatures and count – two, four, six of them. It took only a second to realise their presence, and that was all the time he had before they came in.
It was fight or flight. Itachi chose the latter. There was nothing else for it. He ran, and like persistent silhouettes the shinobi followed.
Around Konoha the forest stretched a few miles in each direction before fanning out into plain terrain and the mountain ranges. Navigation was harder under cover of darkness, but having trained there often enough, Itachi pushed through the trees with ease and without a trail. His sword was strapped on his back and ready to be unsheathed while he continued forward, leaping swiftly over the dips in the damp earth, and pushing the memory of his dead parents away.
The ANBU nin tailing him did not panic. All too aware of just who their target was, the task was not meant to be simple.
"He will tire soon." Their leader signalled to his team in the trees beside him. "Only close the distance gradually."
"Hai."
A flip, a bound over an upturned log. Itachi latched wires without looking and could hear the trickle of a stream close by. Behind him his pursuers were gaining, and little by little his body shifted into stance for inevitable combat.
Not far behind the chasers and their target, a wolf-masked, unauthorized agent moved swiftly. Haruna had shadowed the group ever since Danzou had sent them after Itachi. She targeted the head of their pack before pivoting and ran towards him.
"Wolf here, sir."
The masks all turned to her, glinting eerily in the dark. "You weren't called," the captain –or at least the one leading them forward and who she recognized as one of Danzous hand men – told her gruffly.
"If you would allow me, Heichou," Haruna said as she ducked a low tree branch, "this is my teammate. Allow me to take responsibility for him."
"You, Wolf?"
"Yes sir." She said it so earnestly she almost believed herself too. In front of them, the grey glow of Itachis metal armour flickered. "Danzou-sama told me everything. I will do what my duty tells me to."
"Very well. You know how the Uchiha works, yes?"
"Yes sir. Please allow me to assist you in the least."
A curt nod then Haruna joined them, fitting seamlessly into their formation, and calculated her next move.
Briefly Itachi pondered on conserving the chakra he had left for his Sharingan, but the odds were stacked against him at this point. The first waves of fatigue were hitting him hard, and he still needed enough energy to make it to the border.
He cocked his head sideways to scan the group tailing him. They couldn't chase him forever; he would have to deal with them at some point.
The one furthermost to the right moved first. He dipped and weaved right as he was about to reach the youth who was their objective and slashed downwards with the curved blade of his katana. Itachi parried with one of his gauntlets and the blade clashed against the metal strapped to his arms with a shriek that sent sparks flying into the air. The swordsman was quick and he followed through with an uppercut slash straight away.
Itachi sidestepped to the right but even so, the blade grazed his arm, cutting a crimson line.
Quickly, before the man could respond with a follow-up, he brought his fist upwards in the solar plexus, knocking the wind out of the swordsman, and stunning him for a brief moment. Despite his counter offensive, the fight had taken Itachi close to having his back to another tree, leaving him dangerously open for more attacks – and the nin were not done yet.
An explosive tag was latched on a kunai and thrown. Itachi turned, caught it in midair and threw it back. It exploded in fiery shards, setting a tree ablaze where the agent had been a millisecond ago. At the same time, two more shinobi engaged – one a plain white mask while the other resembled a tanuki - and calling back to mind the katas practically ingrained into his muscles over the years, Itachi counteracted without delay. The boy kneed the back of the first ones' knees, knocking him forward and out of range for the time being and, using the momentum gained from the move, he lashed an arm out against his adversary's neck, pulling him back and leaving him open to launch an elbow to his gut. Though his opponent wore a breastplate, Itachi knew all too well that, with the correct amount of force, a considerable amount of internal damage could be made.
Yet the attack left Itachi open for a fraction of a second - which was enough time for the others to counter. Haruna threw herself forward just as the tanuki-masked hit the ground, and gave a forceful palm to the chest, the heel of her hand landing on the space above Itachi's heart.
Her raven haired teammate barely had time to breathe, let alone dodge. But, it was a testament to his experiences in battle that Itachi kept the presence of mind to roll backward with the hit, his back hitting the tree with a thud. Haruna bent her arm, the bone of her forearm adding slight pressure to the windpipe. Katana drawn –her blade angled downward - behind her, the other shinobi advanced.
Haruna leaned closer. "Oi. Itachi."
She saw his eyes widen in recognition before his hand closed around the smoke pellets dangling from her waistband and threw them. Thick clouds of smoke filled the clearing.
When it dissipated enough, the rest of the group saw two figures, one standing while the other fell to their knees. Itachi sprung away in the opposite direction, this time picking up speed and urgency but their attention was drawn to Wolf. The white bandages wrapped around her right leg were rapidly turning vermillion and she staggered, resting her weight on one side.
"Wolf-"
"I'll follow" she told them, gritting her teeth. "I'm not done yet." The kunoichi ran her thumb over the blood on her thigh and whispered a 'kuchiyose no jutsu'. Two wolves emerged from the resulting smoke, whom she beckoned to follow their fleeing target. The other shinobi nodded, obviously grateful for the tracking assistance the animal summons would no doubt provide.
"You know where to find us." the captain told her while the young woman began to bandage the fountain of hot crimson now pooling underneath her. They were wasting time as they spoke and the man knew it. Wolf nodded and they went on without her. Haruna touched the clotting cut gingerly as she watched them…
.
.
…before puffing into a cloud of smoke.
A few metres away at the bottom of another clump of trees, Haruna heaved a sigh of relief next to Itachi. "Well that was close…" Underneath the hand she had clamped over his mouth, Itachi's muscles were tense. Itachi tapped at her hand weakly.
"Oh my bad", she retracted her hand quickly.
"Haruna-san, I don't understand –"
Haruna placed both hands up innocently. "I had to play along. Danzou wants you dead since you didn't kill Sasuke." She saw Itachi take a sharp breath. "I'm glad you didn't," she said after a while.
Itachi looked up at her, his red eyes bright. "I must leave before they realise I am a clone of yours."
Whatever the kunoichi wanted to say she forced down in the recesses of her throat. As the leader of their tag team and as the only person the boy had left to look up to, Haruna knew that she had to remain mature and collected. "I know." Itachi closed his eyes wearily for a moment and when he opened them again he saw that three more summons had appeared – two russet, another one the colour of pearl - had appeared beside the older kunoichi.
"Wha-?" he asked uncertainly, still feeling slightly dizzy. The colours clashed together for a fearful moment and he put a hand to his eye.
"They know the safe way to the border." Haruna explained. The amount of chakra she had used to summon the other two wolves and the shadow clones beforehand was beginning to take its toll and a bead of sweat trickled slowly down the side of her face. "All you have to do is follow them."
The boy opened his mouth to speak but was cut short when she held her hand up. "I'll keep the other ones off your trail as long as I can. And your secret, of course, stays with me."
"And Sasuke?" he asked anxiously, the last but the greatest of his worries. "Will Danzou…"
"He won't." Haruna promised him vehemently. "I'll watch. I'll take care of him and Naruto together."
Itachi's eyes watered for a moment and he swallowed back a sob of relief , and gratitude. He whispered hoarsely, "Why are you doing this?"
Haruna's eyes softened and when she spoke she seemed older than she felt. "You're so young Itachi. I can't say how much I wish things didn't have to turn out this way but they have, and we can't do anything about it. But I won't let you do this on your own." Haruna smiled wistfully, before she leaned in and pressed warm lips against a pale forehead. Both of them could tell the other had more to say, but this wasn't the time. There was never going to be another time.
Hazel eyes closed and pulled away first. "Hurry Itachi." she told him. "You need to clear some distance."
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(End of Chapter 5)
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AUTHORS NOTE:
Okay I had a few headcanons going on a while ago when I was reading Itachi's story again – one being the fact that Danzou may have sent shinobi after Itachi in order to make it believable to the rest of the village that Itachi had indeed killed his own clan in cold blood. Then I was all like, 'hey, why I don't add this in to Chapter 5?'. Which I did. Ta da!
I tried really hard writing the action sequence – it all made perfect sense in my head by idk if it does in writing. I'm not GOOD guys, I'm still trying and it's only NoeticSky who is able to save me. Somehow keeping a little hand-to-hand combat was just necessary, if you know what I'm saying. Either way, it's not like it's purely speculation on my part to think all ANBU are good at taijutsu.
And I know that Naruto is supposed to be the main character but you know, I'll cut him some slack at the moment while I currently get over a few Itachi feels.
Please R&R!
Alatariele C.
- in collab. with NoeticSky