Hello my dearest readers, it's been a while, hasn't it? Well, I'd just like to say that I really appreciate the patience of you all, I've been having my university interviews so I've been pretty busy :/ However! Here is the third chapter AT LAST, of Flowers from stone. Enjoy!
Flowers from stone
"Your posture is wrong."
Smack.
"You're not using enough force."
Smack.
"You are being too slow."
Smack.
"Crouch, I said, crouch."
Smack.
Maoru's heavy eyes twitched as her raven haired superior continued using a bamboo cane to 'correct' her every time he deemed her to be making some kind of mistake, trivial or not. Still, as he circled her as she assumed a crouching position, almost like a bird of prey, she couldn't help but think that he seemed to be a bit more brutal towards her that morning. His coal orbs never left her rigid form, watching every twitch of a muscle, every pulse of a vein, every bead of sweat that rolled down in between her-
Smack.
"Itachi-Senpai, I didn't do anything wrong!" She seethed, a red welt of pain burning into her exposed lower back. Itachi closed his eyes and turned, cane in hand.
"A master needn't explain himself to the student."
Maoru scoffed and collapsed on her rear. They'd been training for four hours nonstop, with no breaks in between, just the same merciless teachings of her Senpai. She must have spent a good two hours assuming the crouched position as he attempted to teach her how to be more stealth-like, rather than an elephant stomping about the place. The other two had been spent in numerous self-awareness exercises to improve her responsiveness to the world around them. Or in other words, meditating for an hour and dodging the cane when she felt it near her face which more often than not, she failed and ended up being beaten to a pulp. The girl whined and sprawled out on the cold, gritty stone floor, some of the small flecks of the gravelly texture sticking to her wet, hot skin and cooling it. But the feeling was uncomfortable.
"Senpai, we've been at it for hours now. Can we not take a break? I'm not learning anything!"
Itachi turned swiftly, with a swish of his cloak and lunged for her. The girl squeaked and parried to the left with the swiftness of a jackrabbit. His cane came crashing down onto the hard stone floor with a thwack! The girl frowned at her master but still couldn't ignore the satisfaction of his cane missing her stinging flesh. Itachi's calm but cold eyes never left the spot where she had been, only to close in response to her words before he spoke.
"Your mind may be oblivious, but your body is learning to respond. Do not be so impulsive to speak when you do not know what you are speaking about, otherwise you will find yourself not reaching your full potential. You seem to be forgetting that I am your master and whatever I say is law, you will follow it or you will not succeed."
Maoru's lips pursed as she stared at him in her crouched position. Funny. Performing a move like that would have made her strain her back usually with the way she executed it through a series of sideward rolls and flips. Grudgingly, she had to admit that he had been right. Again. Her cheeks flushed, embarrassed. She'd only met the man a few weeks ago and she was already beginning to find a correlation in the way he spoke to her. He was always right. Sliding into a standing position, she put her hands behind her back and swung her upper body left and right coyly, offering him a small smile.
"Okay, but can we eat something?" She cooed, fluttering her eyelashes at him. The man sighed and followed her standing motion. Silently, he strode past her, barely touching her arm on the way out and skulked into the hall. Guessing that meant for her to follow, she grinned and followed him out. Another correlation, if you will. Her Senpai did have one fault. And that was that he was fairly weak willed when she persisted, something she'd picked up on fairly quickly. She stared at the back of his head as they walked in silence.
.
"Itachi… Goodnight…"
…
"Get some sleep."
.
The girl's eyebrows furrowed. That night a few weeks ago was a bit of a haze for her, she'd consumed so much alcohol, especially for a first timer, that she couldn't actually distinguish her dreams from reality. She remembered bumping into Deidara, heading back to the bar for more drinks, the occasional flirty behaviour of her blonde haired senior and so on up until Kisame went to bed. And even then, her memory grew foggy. She wondered if it had been real. Even so, she probably wouldn't be drinking again for a while, the morning after had been a nightmare. She barely woke up as Itachi had stormed into her room. Apparently, although he had said six o'clock, it was common for Akatsuki members to be at the training hall half an hour earlier. How was she meant to know? Of course, being sprawled out on her mattress at five minutes to six didn't help her alibi, but still.
She cocked her head as a smile graced her lips, she decided to be a bit ballsy.
"Itachi-Senpai, I never thanked you for that night."
…
For a moment, there was an awkward silence as Itachi seemed to completely ignore her. The girl persisted.
"For taking me to bed."
This caused her Senpai to stop and she held back a mischievous smirk despite the temptation to laugh. Her master was also fairly respondent to her seemingly innocent euphemisms, something she'd always found funny with men like him. Always so serious. Itachi turned to her and she quickly frowned when his stony eyes seemed to be searching her, almost curiously.
"I… don't know what you're talking about."
And with that, he turned from her and carried on his way to the living area. The girl frowned as she failed to notice the small smile that twitched onto her superior's lips. Nimble fingers twirled with sandy blonde locks in thought. Maybe it was all a dream then? Either way, Maoru was hungry and proceeded to speed down the hallway after her Senpai.
.
Itachi's eyes were cool and collected as he sat on the shabby sofa, thoughts currently occupying the events of the night a few weeks before. His eyes hardened when he heard what could only be yelling coming from the door. Immediately, his thoughts rushed to his Kouhai before he pushed them down and remained seated and calm. There was nothing to concern himself over. After all, a ninja who could not protect themselves with their own power did not deserve to be a ninja at all.
A second had barely passed before the door slammed open and the muffled arguments had become all too real and all too irritating to Itachi's pounding headache.
"I fucking told you already, the guy was dressed like a hooker, how was I supposed to know he was your stupid fucking bounty?"
"Because, Hidan, you should have checked who you were decapitating before going on with your blasted ritual."
"Don't you dare bring Jashin-Sama into this, you decrepit old fucker."
Thud.
"Fuck!"
Coal eyes watched quietly as the pair stormed into the room, sopping wet from the rain and stinking of earth and blood. Hidan's silver head seemed to bob up and down behind Kakuzu's leather-clad one before it stopped and turned, sensing another presence in the room. Kakuzu too seemed to notice and looked over his shoulder.
"Itachi." The older of the two stated in acknowledgment before carrying on through the room, most likely aiming for the bedroom that he shared with his sadistic partner. Itachi only nodded to him before his cold eyes fell onto Hidan who just sneered at him, his handsome face twisting in an unruly fashion.
"Creepy bastard…" He mumbled. Itachi ignored him before reaching into his pocket and pulling out a crinkled and torn book about shuriken techniques that he'd read twelve times over already. Shortly after, did he hear a thud! His eyes daren't move from their already engrossed position on the third page before he heard a louder Slam! And a very familiar voice.
"S-sorry!"
"What the fuck do you think you're playing at, girly? Shoving into Kakuzu like that."
Maoru was startled when the silver haired man's strong hand smacked into the wall next to her head and caged her like a canary. Her lithe body was no match for his big burly one and it scared her a little. Perhaps she was stupid, but she was really only coming to terms with the types of people she was dealing with there in the Akatsuki. Only now was she beginning to realize how ridiculously strong they all were. In comparison, she was little more than a child playing ninja.
It was only when The large man's face lingered threateningly close to her own and she could see that murder intent in his eyes that could only belong to a stone cold killer was she grateful for her Senpai's intervention.
Itachi was up and between the very startled Maoru and the dangerously aggravated Hidan within the blink of an eye and grabbed Hidan's wrist before he could touch her.
Maoru watched in amazement with almost a child-like admiration as the raven haired ninja came to her much needed rescue from the silver haired brute who seemed to tower over her and trap her with his aggressive, red-violet stare. She'd been strolling down the hall, admittedly trapped in a world of her own when she'd turned into the living room and smacked into an unknown object. She hadn't actually thought much of it. She knew pretty much all of whom it could be, either of her two superiors, Kisame or Sasori, who she hadn't actually seen much of, or the other subordinates. You could imagine her surprise when she had to crane her neck all the way up to see a pair of very green, very angry eyes boring into her.
She was even more startled when she was roughly shoved into the wall by another man she'd never even laid eyes upon in her life. The two were so much bigger and burlier than her that she'd felt her knees buckle under the pressure of their angry stares, she was pretty intimidated. So when Itachi had appeared before her and saved her from a fate most likely worse than death, she was fairly grateful, and was pretty sure she'd let out a small, 'oh my god, thank you.' Under her breath.
"Move out the fucking way, dick breath. I'm gonna teach this little Bitch some manners." The silver haired man averted his gaze to her and grinned manically once he captured her eyes, a sight not all too thrilling for Maoru when it involved the implication of some serious maiming on her part. Itachi stood still in front of her and she flickered her gaze to the back of his head, cheeks flushing slightly when she realized he was staring at her out of the corner of his eyes. And boy, did he look mad.
"Stand down, Hidan. I need my student in one piece, after all."
There was a moment of silence before Kakuzu pushed his silver haired partner behind him, realizing that the violent priest wouldn't back down unless he was the one to make him.
"No harm done, I'm sure. Just make sure it doesn't happen again." He grumbled. Maoru nearly choked on her spit. It was only a minute ago when that same green eyed man seemed to be strangling her with his stare. Closing her eyes tightly, she stepped closer to Itachi's back and revelled in his calming presence. It didn't do much and made her feel like a vulnerable little kid, but it was comforting.
"Cheh," Hidan took a more relaxing stance and ran his hand through his stiff, silver hair, feeling the waxy texture and attempting to compose himself. "Whatever. Why does it even matter? You fucking her or something, Itachi?"
Maoru scowled.
A frown made its way to her face as she stared at the man who crossed his muscled arms over his chest. She hadn't noticed before but his cloak was ripped to shreds, diagonal slashes of deep crimson marred his pale, youthful flesh but he seemed so unfazed. In fact, he seemed unfazed by everything. If she didn't feel so damn inferior, she might have told the guy where to shove it. Hell, she might have done it herself. But staring at the two intimidating new Akatsuki members, she realized it might not be the best idea-
"That is of no importance to you."
…
The room fell silent awkwardly as Itachi spoke his words that seemed to say nothing but also, so much to the two other members. But said most of all, to the girl who stood behind him, mouth agape and eyes wide, practically internally screaming at her usually stoic Senpai. What the hell's he playing at implying things like that!
Hidan was the first to express his shock and lashed out, whacking Kakuzu's arm whose eye just twitched, irritated at the gesture. The silver haired priest choked out a dry laugh as his thin eyebrows raised in surprise.
"Well, I was going to say how fucking gobsmacked I was to hear the great Itachi Uchiha has been balls deep in pussy but damn."
The older male seemed to roll his green eyes.
"Enough, Hidan. Nobody is interested in your vulgar comments."
"Fuck you, old timer! If anything you should be fucking ecstatic I stood up for your wrinkly ass but cheh. That's the appreciation I get."
And with silence responding to his partner's continuing swearing, the towering man known as Kakuzu made his swift exit out of the room, attracting a cussing Hidan with him. Maoru watched them go and after a few minutes of waiting for the arguing to fade, she finally let out a deep breath of relief. You really know how to cause trouble, you know that? She calmed herself and finally realized that Itachi had been patiently awaiting for her to let go of his cloak. She stammered out an apology before releasing him and distancing herself as much as she could, pressing herself up against the wall.
The man seemed to hesitate before turning swiftly and trapping her against the wall, causing her to yelp in surprise. W-what… She stared into his eyes that had turned a horrid crimson, tomoes swirling in aggravation. Her own stormy grey eyes widened slightly as she felt hypnotized in under that hateful gaze. She bit her lip, feeling her eyes well up. Those eyes.
"I-Itachi-Senpai…"
"Do you want to get us both killed." He growled out, causing her to hiccup and shake her head.
"No…"
The man narrowed his eyes when he saw her struggling to hold back tears. Something he found pitiful and childish. He stepped back and blinked, his red eyes reverting back to their original onyx black. The girl seemed to hesitate for a moment before she sniffled.
"I'm…"
Itachi crossed his arms over his chest as he frowned, awaiting her apology. It wasn't seeming too promising at the present, seeing as she could barely make out a sentence without nearly crying. The sandy haired girl folded her arms behind her back and leaned on them before staring at her Senpai from beneath her thick lashes.
"…I'm sorry."
…
Maoru waited eagerly for Itachi to say something, even closing her eyes and biting her lip, expecting the worst; expecting him to scream at her about how 'A ninja shouldn't be so careless and clumsy,' About how she was a 'A bumbling fool with no common sense.' Instead, there was nothing. Her eyes that had dried up slightly opening and squinted at him, her face cringing, still worrying that he would raise his voice. Instead, there he stood, a stoic expression across his handsome face.
"You will not cause so much trouble for me again, do you understand?"
Itachi's voice was the same icy barrier but there was also something quite… soft about it?
Maoru could only raise an eyebrow as his lips moved, mouthing words that only flew over her swooning head. Was she developing a crush on her Senpai? Somehow, that felt slightly cliché… Still, a warm blush spread over her cheeks as he rambled on about 'the principles on a ninja,' and all she could focus on was what he'd said earlier. That and what was underneath that cloak. 'That is of no importance to you.' Gods above, he'd been so damn casual about it, like he wanted them to think something like that could be happening. Her face continued to heat up as he carried on talking away.
With the clearing of her throat, she stopped Itachi in his lecture causing his brow to raise curiously.
"If you don't mind, Itachi-Senpai, I'm gonna reflect on… your wise teachings, erm, in my room."
The man just stood motionless, mouth still ajar awkwardly as her words interrupted his seemingly one sided conversation. If he wasn't mistaken, was she trying to get away from him? He folded his arms over his chest, purple nail varnish shining in the dull light of the grey painted sky window, a frown soon marring his perfect lips. The girl seemed to shuffle under his gaze and also appeared to be inching closer to the hallway, a nervous grin revealing her pearly whites.
The two seemed to speak to each other with only their body language for a minute which had Maoru wondering if she was telepathic. Finally, Itachi let out a sigh.
"Alright."
The girl shot out of the room like a bullet and was gone in the blink of an eye. The raven hair man just closed his onyx orbs and buried his face in his cloak, returning to the training room. He hoped she knew to return to the same destination after lunch. Their day was far from over, after all.
.
Itachi stood in between his student and Deidara in their leader's quarters, awaiting to give the weekly report of Maoru's progress but the man was late by at least fifteen minutes already, probably dealing with the… complications of the other two subordinates placed under Kisame and Sasori. Or to put it simply, the lack there of. Both had undergone strange disappearances which, in the Akatsuki, usually meant death. Deidara and Itachi had worked it out that one would train the girl in the morning and the other, in the evening. Usually, they swapped shifts. But Itachi found himself trying to coax his way into training her in the evenings, just to prevent her from getting wrecked with her less responsible Senpai who seemed to love leading her astray from he and Itachi's training regime. It irritated the raven haired man to no end. Especially since it happened increasingly.
The man turned to look at his little protégé and couldn't help but think positively. She'd shown massive improvement in the past few weeks of being there but still had a long way to go. He'd soon have her shaped and ready to be a successful Akatsuki subordinate in no time. But still, he frowned.
There was something that bothered him.
Since she'd been there, he hadn't found a single thing that could give him clues about her connections with Orochimaru. And he needed to know. Not just for the sake of his undercover mission, but he had a burning desire to find out more about the girl. Now, he was never a man to pry but it also brought up questions within him about her relation to Sasuke. Itachi's eyes narrowed slightly at her as he studied her. She was too innocent and, no offense to her, clueless to be up to something. And yet he still got the feeling that she wasn't being totally truthful.
He blinked when he realized she was giving him a slightly nervous smile and that he'd been staring her down intensely for the past five minutes.
"What is it, Senpai?"
Itachi closed his eyes and turned to face the shadowed parts of the grand hall, regaining his cool appearance.
"Nothing."
The raven haired man could feel, not only her gaze but Deidara's also, on him and whilst he could say that he was indifferent to it, it made him slightly unnerved to have been caught staring. After what felt like a good half an hour of Itachi being silent and Deidara and their student having the occasional chat, a figure moved within the shadows and stepped into the light. Finally.
Intense, ringed eyes flickered to each member before settling on the girl, apathetic.
"I apologize for my tardiness. I had some… matters to attend to."
The three before him were silent as Itachi shuffled forward slightly.
"I have our weekly feedback from the subordinate, leader-Sama."
The man seemed to address Itachi with his piecing grey eyes and nodded for him to continue. Whilst behind Itachi, Maoru became fidgety. She always did in front of the Akatsuki leader, he was a powerful man with an aura as crushing as a god. It always seemed to make her feel more aware of her surroundings. As if she'd be jumped any minute. Deidara seemed to notice and give her a smirk beneath the collar of his overly large Akatsuki cloak which made her a bit more at ease. One of the things Maoru had come to appreciate was Deidara's chilled out attitude at times like this .If he hadn't been there to balance Itachi out, she surely would have had a mental break down. Sometimes it was just nice to not have to worry about the serious stuff. Deidara was a more 'take life as it goes,' kind of guy, which was refreshing. Itachi was very much so, 'Work hard and strive.' Both of which she was awful at.
"For the most part, we've been focusing on improving genjutsu resilience, battle strategy and reflexes whilst looking over the basic subordination requirements such as medic jutsu, summoning and the general rules of being an Akatsuki subordinate and what is expected of such a ninja."
Pein made no noise to respond to Itachi and just stared at the girl, his eyes boring into her very soul. She made no move to break the awkward contact, just shuffled under his glower. Keep your chill, girl. It'll be over soon.
"Very well, Itachi. And at what level would you say the subordinate is currently?"
The subordinate. It's not like she had a name or anything. She gulped and her gaze flickered to the back of Itachi's head. She didn't understand how he was so impenetrable. She'd be a stuttering mess at that point.
"I would say high Chunin level, bordering Jounin level ambitiously."
The leader seemed to respond positively, and by that I mean his rinnegan eyes shot back to Itachi before turning to face the shadows.
"And what of your training sessions, Deidara."
The blonde bomber smirked as he stared at the girl which instantly made her narrow her eyes at him. He wouldn't say anything stupid now, would he? She thought and he seemed to read her mind, mouthing a subtle, 'Play nice, yeah,' before clearing his throat.
"She responds well to tai jutsu, ninjutsu and special jutsu in particular, yeah. Just need to work on that terrible stamina of hers, un."
The girl held her hand up to her forehead, gaze shooting to the ground as her cheeks heated. Deidara-Senpai… She internally growled. She swore she'd destroy him tonight when they went out on the town with the rest of the Akatsuki members. The god-like man turned to look at her, his grey eyes shooting her down from the corner of his eyes.
"Mostly positive feedback. Good. Because you'll be going on a mission. Just Itachi and Maoru Tochi. Deidara, you have a mission with Sasori. I will discuss the information with you, Deidara and Itachi. As for you, you have made it this far and I congratulate you on that factor at least. But you have yet to prove your worth to this organisation. Let this mission; your first mission, show that and you will have earned a solid position as a subordinate and in the future, maybe even a member. You are dismissed." Leader's god-like voice boomed and echoed throughout the stony walls of the grand hall of his quarters.
As for Maoru, she didn't even pay attention completely to his dismissal, instead, she didn't even contain the smile that stretched across her face, grey eyes sparkling with pride. The sandy haired girl literally had to stop herself from squealing and jumping for joy.
When Itachi turned his head to see why she hadn't moved, his eyes trailed over her face, taking in her over the moon expression. Pursing his lips, he tried not to smile. But it was damn hard not to when he saw those dimples on her cheeks when she genuinely smiled. Coughing, he broke her from her happy little bubble and she released a small, 'oh!' Before hurrying out, head lowered as she grinned to herself. Itachi scolded himself at the feeling of his chest tightening. Not good. Nope. Definitely not good. He turned his head in front of his cloaked form and frowned. Just focus on the mission. On the big picture.
.
Hello all! Hopefully you all enjoyed this chapter and I will try to post regularly, if not every week. It's easier said than done, I swear. But yeah, I hope you all started getting an idea on what Maoru's strengths and weaknesses are in this chapter in particular. I also want to develop her relationships with the different characters. Feel free to ship her with Deidara but the thing between them is purely playful and shouldn't be taken too seriously. I just feel like Deidara's a charming little rascal who knows how to get what he wants so yeah. Also, Hidan and Kakuzu are cuties, just saying. I wanted to add that love hate part in there just because they make me giggle so much. In the next few chapters, I will reveal more about Maoru's past and her relationship with ol' duck butt. So yeah, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, again, I'm so sorry for the long wait but as I said, I've just been so busy. Please F&F and review! I really would appreciate reviews to keep me motivated!