SOMEWHERE OUTSIDE OF THE CAMP
"Shit, I can't see anything!"
It was dark outside, almost pitch black, with the moon light mostly covered by the massive amounts of leaves that the trees in the woods had produced. Only feint amounts of moonlight filtered through every now and then, however it was not enough light for this man to know exactly where he was heading.
After walking for what seemed like hours, finally he had come to a clearing. Here, he could clearly see the meadow that was lit by the moon, and the figure standing in the center, waiting. The moon light shone brilliantly off of the weapon that was being held by the one in the center, causing a ray of light to be reflected right into the eyes of the first man.
"Deidara..." the second man mused. "You're late." He chuckled in a condescending manner. The man now turned to face Deidara directly, holding his triple bladed axe loosely across his bare shoulders. His silver/gray hair glistened in the moon light, and his brown eyes looked across the way almost tauntingly.
Deidara, now almost at arms length away from Hidan, stopped and scoffed, brushing back his long, blond bangs to expose his ominous blue eyes. "I couldn't find my way. It's not my fault I can't see a damn thing around here."
Hidan suddenly got serious. "Did you find what we needed?" He placed his blade down in an upright postion, as if to use for standing support.
"Yes. It's about two kilometers away from here, going east."
"How many people?"
"Maybe two hundred."
Hidan let out a bloodthirsty laugh. "Ah, what a wonderful turnout..." He quickly turned and started walking the opposite way of which Deidara came from.
"Hey- where are you going?"
Hidan looked back over his shoulder. "Of course, we have to report this."
"Oh, right." Deidara quickly followed behind Hidan back into the abyss of trees and shrubs.
MIDNIGHT
Ring ring.
Itachi groaned, his face grimacing as he was gradually forced awake. He turned over to his side, facing away from his phone.
Ring ring.
"Ugh..fuck.." Itachi, now aggitated as well as disoriented, reached behind him and tapped around the stand, feeling for his phone.
Ring ring.
He grabbed the phone and quickly flipped it open, bringing it to his ear with his eyes still closed. He took a moment to collect himself.
"..Hello?"
"Sir, we have a security breach."
Itachi took less than a second to process what he just heard. He eyes flew open and he shot straight up in his bed.
"Where?" His tone was much more assertive now as he was wide awake.
"Sector four."
"Is there anyone on the scene?"
"Yes, we have sent out two squads to check it out. They should be arriving as we speak."
"When was the breach recorded?"
"About ten minutes ago."
"Any surveillance footage on who it could be?"
"That's the thing sir... it appears these two are escaped convicts."
Itachi felt his heart skip a beat. Two escaped convicts? He remained silent.
"We did a background check on these two, and it seems they have been the target of recruitment, just like the other escapees..."
Itachi's eyes narrowed as he pieced the new information together.
"If you get any more information, give me a call." He hung up his phone and held it in his hand momentarily, then placed it back down on the stand. Two more... that's four in one month.
Itachi closed his eyes and held his chin in his hand, contemplating what this meant. Suddenly he remembered an encounter he had about two years before. It couldn't be...
TWO YEARS BEFORE
His heart was pounding. Did I lose them? Itachi's cover was blown. He had ran as far and as fast as he could away from the warehouse, and now he had come up to a dead end. He figured he had gone far enough, and decided to rest for a moment to figure out what to do next.
"Did you really think you could out run us?"
Shit. Itachi, lowering his head and balling his hands into fists, beared his teeth in frustration, and started grinding them, a bad habit he had developed after the death of his parents. Slowly he turned around to face his opponents, reactivating his sharingan. His eyes glowed a beastly shade of red.
There were three men in front of him, blocking him in. He had no choice. He would have to fight.
"Itachi... the legend child of the Uchiha..," the man in the middle of the three sneered. "Don't you think it's a waste to throw away your kind of skill?" The two behind him chuckled as a sort of response. Itachi narrowed his eyes at the man.
The man had black, long hair, similar to Itachi's, only it was much thicker, and this man seemed to prefer his hair be down. He had a muscular build and was not all that much taller than Itachi, but his very aura seemed to loom over the entire area. He kept his face half hidden behind his hair, yet the way he carried himself showed that he thought very highly of himself.
Itachi remained silent, lifting his chin up to match his opponent's gaze. He was not afraid of death.
"Oh... I see..." the man entertained. "You think you're strong enough to handle us?" He smiled viciously towards Itachi.
Itachi grunted, and reluctantly answered, "My skills are derived from my passion to protect those who are dear to me."
"Then why couldn't you save your parents?"
Itachi felt his whole world shatter. Bastard! How dare he?! He has no place!
The man started laughing maniacally. "Why don't you put your skill to good use and join us? We knew you were watching all along- you played right into our hands." The man spit on the ground, and then looked up at Itachi challengingly. "Or are we going to have to kill you?"
"I'd gladly die before you use me for one of your schemes," Itachi snarled in reply, drawing out his katana from his back sheath, preparing to fight.
"Oh, is that so?" The three men unsheathed their weapons as well, and gave him no room to answer. Immediately, the three of them sprinted towards Itachi, raising their weapons, getting ready for the kill. Itachi stood in a defensive position, placing his left foot forward slightly, leaning back on his right, depending on the weight transfer to him him move more fluidly. All he needed was to meet the gaze of his opponent, but it seemed they knew better.
The man on the right approached first with an overhand swing. Itachi ducked swiftly, turning on his heel and bringing his katana around and up towards the man's chest. It was an immediate hit. Quickly, he drew the sword out and blocked the slash that was aimed at his head from the one on the left. The man in the middle was hovering over, bringing down his sword on what would have been Itachi's head. A flash of a familiar red shade crossed Itachi's view, catching him off guard. What the-?
Suddenly, a smoke bomb went off. Itachi felt someone's sword slash across his chest, and in response, threw his body backwards up against the brick wall that cut him off from the other side of the street. He grimaced at the stinging sensation from his wound, raising his right arm to put pressure on the gash that extended from the center of the right side of his upper rib cage, all the way across to the left side. He held his katana in his left hand, having to rely on his sharingan to help him see the chakra traces of his enemies. He could hear the other two men coughing.
"Never think that you are safe, Uchiha Itachi," the leader threatened. Itachi could swear he felt the burning of another sharingan staring him down.
Out of what seemed like thin air, Kakashi appeared before him using his teleportation jutsu, wrapping his arm around his back and under his left underarm, and they teleported away from the scene, as far as the jutsu would allow. They left the three in the alley as they began to dash from building to building until finally they were back on a road that could get them out.
Kakashi led Itachi to the ANBU infirmary. Itachi was now trying to hold back yelps and groans of pain, as the stinging and burning sensation was only getting worse by the second. As soon as they walked into the front door, Itachi could no longer bear the pain, and collapsed on the floor, writhing in pain.
"Someone get him on a gurney!"
A crew of emergency medics immediately got him on an IV and tore open his clothing to expose the now inflamed, discolored, and swelling scar.
"He's going septic!"
Right after one of the nurses said that, Itachi began to vomit violently. The group rushed him off to the ICU.
A FEW DAYS AFTER THE INCIDENT
"How are you feeling?" Kakashi was sitting on the edge of Itachi's bed when he finally awoke from his coma.
"..Kakashi.." Itachi tried to raise his head, but was still too weak,
"Just lay still for a bit." Thank God he's finally awake. In an attempt to lighten the mood, Kakashi then said with a smile, "You see? This is why I want to leave ANBU."
Itachi let out a weak laugh. "Right."
Kakashi then realized Itachi was probably scorched, and proceeded to help raise him up and position his pillows in such a way to where he could at least drink water. Kakashi grabbed the cup that was waiting to be used off the stand, filled it with water from the pitcher, and pressed the cup to Itachi's lips.
"Here."
Itachi softly raised his hands to grab a hold of the cup. After taking a few sips, he said,
"You know, I know you're older than me, but you don't have to baby me."
Kakashi frowned. "Apparently I do. What where you thinking back there, going off on your own? Idiot."
Itachi let out a heavy sigh, proceeded to take another sip of his water, and then placed the cup down.
"We had gotten quite a few complaints about people breaking into homes and reports about people who had gone missing." He paused to gain his breath.
"After thorough investigating, I discovered that these were done by the same group of people. At first it was just one person, but then it turned into five." He took a moment to organize his thoughts. "We were able to capture two of them, however they both killed themselves shortly after being apprehended." Itachi's gaze then turned grim. "So, I took it upon myself to try to find out more information about what this group was planning. I felt that there had to be something bigger going on. It just didn't make sense..." His words quietly trailed off.
"Well," started Kakashi, "next time, be more careful. If the town loses you, we will suffer heavily."
Itachi nodded. "Yeah. Thanks." He couldn't shake the image of another pair of sharingan eyes staring at him. It couldn't be possible. No, it wasn't possible...