Thank you, dear readers for giving this story a chance. That was enough to motivate me to continue on. So where did Itachi go? Read on to find out!
Chapter2 – All Alone (With you)
"Shit…" Cursing softly under his breath, Itachi came to a rest on one of the sturdier tree branches, panting slightly. He had only managed to travel for a mere five kilometres from the hospital before he started to experience dizziness and fatigue. After overstraining himself during his fight to the death with his brother and not moving for more than a week after that, it has proven to be quite a challenge even for Itachi.
After leaping down from the window of Konoha Hospital, Itachi immediately headed for the dense canopies in favour of the wide concrete pathway next to the avenue of trees a few meters in front of the hospital entrance. After all, old habits die hard; ninjas during his days were used to travel in forested environment. Even Itachi was unaware of the fact that he instinctively headed for the shadows, like all those times travelling with his partner Kisame and… years back during his ANBU days.
To the untrained eyes, Itachi's swift movement through the trees could be mistaken for a sudden swipe of the wind, with minimal rustling of the foliage and nearly undetectable tapping sound from propelling himself off the branches, possible with his slender build.
By sheer luck, he discovered that while the architecture and culture of the village had evolved tremendously, the general layout of Konoha remained true to his knowledge. By using Konoha Hospital as a reference point, he was able to navigate through the foreign yet familiar spaces with little difficulty. It helped that most of the streets, tree species and several shops were where he remembered them to be. He was certain that he even caught a glimpse of the Dango store, filled with fond memories of the fragrance of his favourite snack, which he used to frequent as a teenager in Konoha.
As the ratio of the landscape to the buildings has drastically tipped, Itachi was forced to utilise more of his chakra to cover the extra distance between each trees. With Konohagagure being urbanised, most of the existing trees were manually planted, and as opposed to the wild ones, were more delicate and less mature. He was quick to pick that up after nearly tripping on several thinner and brittle branches. By focusing and redirecting his chakra to his feet, he could acquire better stability and reduce the force of contact between his feet and the weaker branches.
"Is this… Is this really Konoha?" After finally stopping for a much needed break, Itachi became less focused on his physical conditions and was immediately distracted by the blinking lights that seemed to come from everywhere. They came in a diversity of colours – there were bursts of crimsons and neon greens that were silently commanding the civilians and moving metal carriages' movements. It amazed him that how people's actions could be manipulated by simple blinks of lights willingly. It almost felt like an evolution of his sharingan, almost.
No one's wearing the lead headband anymore, but I do see many people holding onto a small device. For some peculiar reasons, Itachi felt that his eyesight were better, but still bad enough that anything further than three metres remained hazy.
A group of civilians, presumably a family, were strolling causally along the leaf-obscured pathway, chattering away over something called a movie…? They were coming close enough for Itachi to make-out that mysterious glowing device.
"Sharingan!" As the trio of commas surfaced on his now blazing crimson iris, he could see what was on the screen of the device that the lady was clutching.
"April… 2110?" Itachi's eyes widened. That's over hundred years from my time! He was struggling to remain calm. For what purpose was he sent here for? Was it only just him? Shouldn't he be dead? In all his unforeseen panic, he neglected to notice that the family had stopped below where he was taking shelter, and a boy toddler was staring intently at him.
"Look, Mum! There's a crow on the tree with red eyes!" Puzzled, the mother glanced up at the now empty and slightly crooked tree branch. Chuckling, she shook her head, amused by her child's imagination.
"Don't be silly! It's dark, you must be seeing things!"
"Itachi-san… Itachi-san, where the hell are you?" For someone who had been unconscious for over a week, Kanae Itachi sure has got stamina. After running continuously for the past twenty minutes, there were still no sign of him. Sakura felt at her wit's ends. While Konoha was not exactly big, it was not exactly small, either.
A sudden gust of wind brushed passed her entire body, causing her to shiver involuntarily. In her hastiness to search for the missing patient, her missing patient, she neglected to grab the trench coat in her locker. Other than the knowledge of all his songs' lyrics, upcoming concert dates and locations, she knew next to nothing about Kanae Itachi. It was with such perfect timing that Sasuke-kun had to be out of town now, if not she could have drop by his house for some clues…
"I think I know where to find him!"
After forcefully weaselling her way through the crowded streets of the central market (it was T.G.I.F. and all), she finally reached the peaceful Uchiha district, where the Kanae compound resided. This was where most of the traditional pitched-roof terraces and mansions were preserved, with many dated back centuries ago. One of the largest mansions a little down the district entrance belonged to the Kanae family.
There was a popular myth saying that this district was once the property of a dominant clan of Konoha, known as the Uchiha clan, hence the name 'Uchiha district'. However, on one faithful night, there was a ruthless carnage that brought about the swift downfall of the dignified and powerful clan. It even went as far to suggest that the annihilator was a reputable member of the clan. She wondered how much of that tell-tale was true.
Pausing to take a breather, Sakura scanned the scarcely populated street and one figure immediately stood out to her. Instinctively, she started towards the direction of the lone figure.
He was staring intently at the red and white fan symbol imprinted onto the noren hanging at the entrance of the Kanae compound. I wonder what that symbol means.
"Ita-"The last syllable was lost in her mouth; the intangible grieve and remorseful expression written across his otherwise picture perfect face caused Sakura to choke on her words. She had never witness such raw vulnerability from anyone, and especially not from Kanae Itachi. From his eyes and the slight downturn of his lips, he seems to be weighed down by an unsurmountable amount of burden and sorrow, unbeknown to others. For a spilt moment, Sakura could not recognise her idol.
"Please, leave me alone…" He remained rooted to his spot, eyes never once leaving the fan symbol.
"I-Itachi-sa-"
"I am not who you think I am." Sure, the Kanae Itachi she knew was a naturally low-key person, but he was never this distant, and this quiet. Sakura was beginning to worry that it had something to do with his injuries.
"But, Itachi-san…" Sakura took a sharp intake of the biting crisp air, not quite ready for what she saw. A pair of baleful, gleaming crimson eyes gazed upon her dilated jade pupils, and once again, she shuddered involuntarily, as though slapped by a malicious blast of night wind.
Itachi detected fear creeping out behind those stubborn pair of jade orbs, which were still focused on his activated Sharingan. He was tired of living a life of deception- better to scare her off for good than to live as her fantasy idol, whoever this Kanae Itachi was.
"I am not who you think I am."
"Th-then, who are you?" He was taken aback by the queer look of curiosity behind her innocent eyes; in fact he felt baffled that she was still talking to him.
"My name is Itachi, Uchiha Itachi."
"You're not... Kidding, aren't you." Sakura was doing all she could to prevent herself from turning and running off from where she came, to somewhere safe. Those eyes that looked like they belonged elsewhere and they were definitely not Kanae's. This man screamed danger.
"Do you know where we are now?" He questioned her in an eerily calm voice.
"Ye-yes? This is the Uchiha distr-"Wait, didn't he say he is called… No it could not be! Sakura quickly dismissed her silly notion; it was just a sick coincidence that he happened to bear the same surname as this district. Right?
"This was where I used to live." He supplied without waiting for her to complete her sentence. He must be from an affluent background. He momentarily broke their eye-contact to glance at the Kanae compound – a two storey mansion that was partly enshrouded in the darkness of the night.
"Do you know the story behind the Uchiha district?"
"I-I guess so…? Uchiha is the name of one of Konoha's dominant clan decades ago but they were annihilated one night, presumably by someone of the clan…?" At the mention of the annihilation, Itachi returned his attention to Sakura, intrigued by her knowledge of this subject, of his family.
"Oh I heard they were ninjas? They had to handle shurikens and perform assassinations with a sharp blade across the neck of the enemies." Sakura went off animatedly, the tension of the movement temporarily forgotten.
"You mean like this?"
"Yes, like th-"Sakura's innocent jade eyes widened in surprise at the brief disappearance of Itachi's presence. It was immediately replaced by a suffocating sensation; her heart cringed in fear at the polished razor-sharp blade, now held at an uncomfortably close distance next to her throat. She could feel Itachi's warm breath against the back of her hair.
"Don't move." At this point, Itachi was leaning slightly against her, holding his kunai an inch towards her pale neck and they were literally just a breath away.
"Please don't hurt me…" Sakura had a close call with Death himself, and this sudden turn of event evoked the long-surpassed memories and emotions from that incident. She succumbed to the oppressive fear and let out a soft whimper at the helplessness of the situation. Her life was at the complete mercy of this handsome stranger. Death felt like a breath away. Itachi remained unmoved, silently observing her from her back.
"You don't belong here do you? Those eyes and that inhumane speed… Let me help you, so please don't kill me…" Sakura discarded her dignity and was begging shamelessly to be spared, willing to go to any extend just to see the crack of dawn. I can't die, not yet.
"Alright." Itachi withdrew his hand and kept his kunai at the hidden pocket on his pants beneath the loose hospital top. Sakura was instantly drowned by a sense of relief, and scepticism.
"Y-you sure? I could be lying and report you to the Police, you know."
"And why would you do that?" Now that they were back to the conversational mode, Itachi no longer appeared as menacing as before. Sakura dared a glimpse at his eyes and discovered that they were no longer gleaming red. It must be the darkness and light playing tricks to my eyes.
In fact, he seemed rather harmless, smugly raising his eyebrow and challenging her pathetic empty threat. Sakura huffed in disbelief. Guys can be so full of themselves.
"On the account of my Kanae Itachi-san, I shall… Keep to my promise. Alright?" She felt deflated and resigned to the situation. Itachi merely nodded his head.
"Where do you live?"
Oh, what have I gotten myself into?
Sakura escorted Kana- Uchiha Itachi towards her twenty-storey high apartment with the enthusiasm of a middle-schooler waking up at six in the morning. Sakura sighed inwardly; she sneaked a look at the stranger sauntering next to her, the earlier murderous intent completely lost with each approaching steps to his temporary new home.
Here she was living her dream of bringing home an exceedingly stunning eye-candy, who also happened to hold an uncanny resemblance to her idol Kanae Itachi (seriously, and the same name?), yet she was feeling none of the vicarious thrill from her over-active imagination. Sakura was disappointed.
"This is a good life lesson – don't expect dreams to be as good as reality; you are just setting yourself up for disappointment." Sakura muttered out loud to herself while brooding over her ruined fantasy.
"Did you say something, Sakura-san?" Itachi asked without commitment to a startled Sakura. "Wh-what? No, it's nothing. And how do you know my name?" That was the bugging question that she has been dying to know since he left the note addressed to her name at the hospital.
"I am a ninja; I am trained to collect intel." How shrewd of him to answer her question while being vague with the details. Sakura clicked her tongue at his elusive and absurd response. Did he just call himself a ninja? He must be either delusional or deranged. She thought she caught a slight tug at the corner of his lips, but she was uncertain. Nothing was certain the moment he entered her life, without warning.
"Konbanwa, Kotetsu-san. Is Izumo-san off for the day?"
"Konbanwa, Sakura-chan! That's right. I'm handling the night shift today." Kotetsu Hagane boomed. Sakura nodded sympathetically in reply. Being the Head of Security of the Haruna Residence meant three things – Responsibility, Restless nights and Ridiculous working hours. In that aspect, Kotetsu-san seemed to be coping fine, if you exclude the dark circles surfacing under his eyes and the slightly havoc hairstyle.
"Speaking of which, aren't you late tonight! Did you find yourself a commitment?" Kotetsu winked, causing Sakura to blossom into various shades of pink, while sending fugitive glances at Itachi. His cool facade remained indecipherable.
"N-no! Mou, Kotetsu-san! Alright I'm going in, thanks for the good job, as usual!" Nudging Itachi, they entered the compound with the speed of a hot-blooded housewife during an annual big sale.
It was only after they had brisk past the chortling night-shifter that she realised something - it was extremely wise and polite of Kotetsu-san to omit making small-talk and comments on her rare male companion.
It would have been awkward.
"Come on here, I live on the tenth floor." Sakura prompted him languidly towards the lift.
"We aren't using the stairs?" Itachi enquired with mild curiosity.
"For goodness' sake, I just said I live on the TENTH FLOOR, and in case you didn't know, that's quite HIGH UP." Sakura did not bother that she was acting like a cranky old spinster; she was too washed out to maintain her lady-like poise in front of her idol look-alike. Upon the lack of response from the lift, her eyes fumed with disgruntlement that the up button failed to light up.
"Damn, what's the use of providing a lift if it's breaking down all the time?" Sakura yelled unapologetically at the non-responsive lift, the only reply being the high-pitched echo that resounded throughout the lobby.
Itachi appeared thoughtful. For a second, he remained stationary in front of the offending lift, whatever it was; unaware of the reason why this door was causing such discomposure to Sakura. He moved closer towards Sakura and wordlessly lifted her against his solid chest, bridal-style.
"Eek! What are you doing? Put me down!" Sakura shrieked, and began to batter unglamorously at Itachi's surprisingly toned chest, much to her irritation. What is he going to do to me now?
Itachi began running towards the lush courtyard in the middle of the compound, surrounded by the apartment units. Effortlessly and with the grace that only a slender man like himself could pull off, he carried Sakura and himself up to the tallest tree. Next, he propelled them from one branch towards a thicker branch hanging adjacent to the tenth floor corridor, before hopping onto the bare corridor with a dull click of his sandals.
Sakura was rendered speechless, by whatever stunt this Uchiha Itachi just pulled on her. Itachi noticed her lack of movement, and gently nudged her out of her reverie. She leaped out of his embrace like a child who touched a hot kettle.
"You did not just jump from the first floor onto the tallest tree, and landed unscathed on the tenth floor, while carrying me." Itachi remained passive, once again baffled by her disconcertment at solving their predicament. Was it uncommon to travel by trees these days?
"Which is your apartment, Sakura-san?"
Itachi carefully slipped off his sandals before stepping into Sakura's two-room apartment, tugged at the extreme corner of the barren corridor. As expected of a lady's apartment, it was kept pristine and delicate flower arrangements of lily of the valley, orange blossom and red tulips were displayed on the round white polished coffee table. The small rectangular space has a black leather sofa with diamond embellishments on the indents of the back pillows, leaning against the wall with an organic stand lamp next to it, now casting a soft yellow glow in the room. Apart from a wooden picture frame and a round clock that adorned the spotless white wall, it was otherwise minimally decorated.
They made a right turn into her bedroom. The first thing that jumped at him was the posters of himself, of Kanae Itachi, along the left profile of the wall. In one of them, Kanae was shirtless, wearing a slightly baggy black leather pants with a chain dangling from the side pocket, in a walking stance focused defiantly ahead. Itachi frowned at the brashness of this Itachi person (he was tempted to say himself) and perturbed that such an inappropriate image was inside a lady's room.
"What you staring at?" Sakura questioned tactlessly. She was only aware of the sheer quantity of Kanae Itachi's posters lined along the wall until she saw him eyeing her prized possessions. For the first time, she was mildly embarrassed by her extensive collection, possibly because no opposite gender (other than Naruto) had ever entered her apartment, much less her bedroom. She saw his eyes narrowed at the half-naked poster of Kanae from his ILLUSION concert two year back, and decided that was enough for tonight.
"You-"
"You have a nice place." For the umpteen time, she was thrown off by the sincerely and serenity of his usually distant tone. Their eye made contact; his irises were no longer the fiery red but now a dull tone of charcoal, and she could not help but reluctantly noticed, the thick set of lashes that framed his feline eyes. A little down his tear ducts laid a deep crease stretching outwards on each side of his face.
Before she was about to be lost in the abyss of his surreal exquisiteness, she hastily cleared her throat and declared a tad too loudly to Itachi,"You can have the bed." Sakura was really just acting her role as a generous host, and she just so happened to have changed her bed sheets this morning, that lucky chad.
Itachi seemed like he wanted to argue, but after detecting the torrent of counterargument at the tip of Sakura's tongue, waiting to be unleashed, he decided it was not worth his effort. Besides, he was entirely beat from all that running, not to mention the shock of this absurd situation. Itachi mutedly nodded.
More haste, less speed. I shall stay by this Sakura girl and gather more intel about this strange world tomorrow.
"Good, now let me go take a shower. You, stay in this room and rest. I'm sure you are tired, ne?" Sakura offered good-naturedly, albeit wearily. She did not wait for his answer and went on to grab a fresh set of night wear before making a bee-line for the bathroom.
"Gosh, why am I being so friendly to him? He threatened and nearly killed me just now!" She knew that letting a male stranger to her house was dangerous, that this man was dangerous; she was literally inviting danger to her doorstep.
The clear lucid water gliding down her shoulder blades, gently caressing her with their barely there touch reminded her of the earlier skin-contact with Uchiha Itachi, when he carried them to the tenth floor without even batting an eyelash. She discovered that he evaded her question (to how he carried them up) again, this time with a diversion. He must be a mentalist or something.
Despite her porcelain skin, radiance complexion and slim build, she has never dated before. Not after she has set her eyes on that spiky head of raven hair, Sasuke-kun, her Sasuke-kun. He was the walking manifestation of every girl's dream – incredibly intelligent with off-the-charts charisma, and the aloofness that surrounded him just seemed to draw in on a lady's penchant for bad boys.
Sakura sighed as she relinquished the feelings of Itachi's firm grip around her, as though protecting her from the world's harm. It felt so comforting and warm; it was no wonder why Ino was always going on about how amazing it was to snuggle in the crook of her boyfriend's embrace.
"If only they were Sasuke-kun's, then I would really die with no regrets!"
Itachi was lying awkwardly on Sakura's bed, unused to resting on a maiden's bed. He could make out the rhythmic splashing of the water dancing against the bathroom floor. It seemed to lure him into a false sense of tranquillity, which he unwillingly accepted with open arms. His body required the rest, and he knew it. He stared aimlessly at the bleak ceiling, recalling the day's events.
He could only come to an unsatisfactory conclusion - he has never felt so uncertain in his entire life.
Thank you, for reading to the end of this chapter. Feel free to leave comments/reviews so I can better improve for the subsequent chapters ^^