The rain beat against her umbrella as she walked. The rhythmic patter drowned out her steps through the puddles on the street. If it got any colder, she would be walking in the snow, not rain. She only glanced up at the passing shop window a moment to realize she wasn't alone.

But it wasn't Itachi or his friend. This shadow felt sinister. Hinata lowered her umbrella to hide her reaction, a shiver went up her spine, and it didn't feel like the cold. Maybe if she ignored it, it would just pass by.

Hinata sped up and turned the corner, checking the window again. She saw nothing, but she could still feel the sickly air that was left behind. She tucked the umbrella in her arm and pulled off her mother's ring, but it only damped the horrible feeling. She dropped the ring in her pocket and hurried home. She kept her eyes off the windows. Eventually, she left the feeling behind, but the pit in her stomach stayed.

What was that?

Once inside, Hinata stripped off her damp coat and hit the light switch, but the lights didn't turn on. The power is out. Which meant the heat wouldn't work. She stepped out of her shoes and changed into a heavy sweater, and used her phone to find some candles.

At least the stove didn't need electricity. A cup of tea would warm her up. Hinata stared into the kettle as it took its time to boil.

What was that? It felt like death.

The tea kettle screamed, breaking Hinata out of her thoughts. She poured herself a cup and sat down with her candles. She sipped her cup and caught sight of the rest of the box her mother left her. Maybe there were answers in there.

Itachi blinked as Hinata passed right past him at the bottom of her stairs. She didn't see him, or maybe she just didn't realize it was him because she was reading a book.

He stepped forward, appearing beside her. Hinata flinched, reached out, and once her hand touched his arm, the contact allowed her to look up at his face. "Oh, hello. Sorry, I took the ring off."

Someone walked through him, giving her a judging stare as they passed. Hinata's head dipped, and her hand dropped. Itachi collected her hand and slid it back into her pocket. It worked the first time.

Hinata closed her book and tucked it into her chest as they walked. "I think I know what's happening." Itachi raised his eyebrows. "My family is very old and respected. I knew we own a few old shrines, but I didn't really think about it until I started reading this book." Hinata shifted the old book. "It's a how-to on banishing ghosts."

"Lost souls." Itachi corrected.

"What?" Hinata blinked.

"Lost souls, the ones that didn't have one of us to take them or those who reject us. Their numbers increase during wars." Itachi explained, stopping at the crosswalk. It was something he was becoming accustomed to, stopping for traffic. "They aren't supposed to be in between. Their souls rot."

Hinata tilted her head. "Awful." Would she be upset if she knew what they were meant to do with them?

Itachi found himself considering what she thought more often. It was a passing thought, 'What would she think about this?' It was persistent, and sometimes he came to ask, but it occurred to him that he was interrupting her normal human life. He always stopped short of asking. "We destroy them."

Hinata's face didn't twitch in horror as he expected. "Better than letting them suffer."

The light changed, he didn't move, but she did, pulling him forward.

"There are just some things you can't repair," Kiba explained as a disappointed customer left the shop.

Shino came from the back with a box. "Someone came in yesterday with a cast iron pan that they had somehow cracked in half."

"What did they want you to do?" Hinata peaked up from her sewing corner.

Shino shook his head. "Weld it? I don't know. I told them we don't have the kind of equipment needed."

"At least they tried," Kiba commented.

"Are you cold?" Shino suddenly asked.

Hinata blinked up at him. No, she was shivering because she was getting that feeling of death again. "I'll finish this and put a sweater on."

Kiba shrugged his shoulders. "I thought the heat was too high."

Shino rounded the counter with his jacket and put it over her shoulders.

The breeze circled her ankles, leaking into the edges of the fabric. The shop was warm, and she was reluctant to leave it, but she could only hope the power was back in on in her apartment. It was a cold night wrapped up in blankets, and she wanted a warm bath. But maybe this was her getting what she deserved again.

Hinata rolled the ring into her pocket. The sick feeling was gone. Was it safe to put it back on?

Hinata recognized the feeling. It was that pit in her stomach and electricity in her chest that used to wash over her when she was a child. She always thought it was anxiety. The creeping feeling of never measuring up, building up and washing over her when she wasn't expecting it. That's what it felt like. It felt like danger, like her entire body warning her something was wrong.

The ring just amplified the feeling to a nauseating amount, just like it made the things she shouldn't see clear.

The ring, the trinket, and the book together in the box her mother left her begged the question. Did her mother know? Did she see things out of the corners of her eyes too? She was wearing the ring in pictures. She must have noticed seeing something that wasn't there.

Did her father know about it?

… Could Hanabi see them?

Hinata trekked up her steps and took a moment to fight with her door. The lights turned on. Good, Hinata didn't want to spend two days without a bath. Lights on appliances blinked at her to warn her that the time was wrong. She would fix that later.

She slipped out of her outerwear and headed for the shower.

The wind tossed Itachi's coat around his legs, blocked only by Kisame's mass next to him on the ledge. "So she's a shaman?" Kisame concluded.

Itachi tilted his head. "I guess, or at least comes from a family that is gifted."

"A family that sees beyond the human word?" Kisame made a face. "Why wouldn't they tell her about that?"

"It's possible that they forgot. Humans are forgetful." Kisame rolled his eyes. "What?"

"Nothing." Kisame snorted. "Are you still going to continue following her around?"

"You're scared of her?" Itachi wondered.

"That book might tell her how to kill more than lost souls." Kisame crossed his arms. "Why do you keep seeing her?"

"I find her interesting," Itachi explained. "We crossed paths more than once the day she went to the boy's grave."

Kisame face twisted skeptically. "She's too young to know him."

"No, she was visiting the grave beside his." Itachi agreed. "I doubt she knows he's there." It was odd to have a new grave close to an old one. Maybe there was a reason for that. Did she have some kind of family connection to the boy?

"So you're interested because there were coincidences? Very human of you." Kisame didn't have much room to criticize regularly eating food when he had no need for it.

"Coincidences, and she kept looking at me." That day she didn't seem surprised to see him. She said she thought she made him up, but why would she imagine someone like him?

Kisame sighed sadly, looking over the edge of the building. "Be careful. I don't want to repeat what happened last time."

Itachi was making no promises. This wasn't the first time he had attached himself to a human's short life span.

Hinata stuttered out of her apartment as she found a flash of Itachi waiting on the other side. She stuck her hand in her pocket to slip on the ring to see him fully. He waited for her to lock her door. "I'm going for groceries."

"I know," Itachi replied.

Was she that predictable? Itachi pointed down at the reusable grocery bags. "Oh." Hinata's cheeks flushed. Yeah, that would give it away. "Are you coming with me?"

Itachi nodded. "The grave you visited," He started as she went down the stairs. "Who is it?"

"My sister," Hinata answered, lowering her face into her scarf. "She died a few years ago now." It always felt odd to answer his curious questions. It was like he was studying her.

"Why that graveyard?" Itachi asked.

Hinata grabbed his arm to pull him out of the way of someone passing her, realizing too late she didn't need to do that. She let go and shoved her hand back in her pocket as a smile spread across his face. He thought it was funny. "It's just the family graveyard. We own the land. Does grave location have some kind of significance?"
Itachi shook his head. "Not really."

Then why ask? "Why were you there?"

"I was visiting a grave," Itachi admitted. "Maybe they're related to you."

Since they were asking questions. If he was surprised he could be seen, then it wasn't likely someone saw him before. So how did he know someone living enough to feel the need to visit their grave, or was this not the first time he just stalked someone around? "How long have you been alive."

"I am not alive," Itachi answered definitively.

So maybe he died? "You're dead?"

"No." Itachi shook his head.

How did that make sense? "I think not alive means dead."

"I'm not dead. I'm just not alive." Itachi explained.

"I think that is the same thing?" Hinata couldn't help the smile that spread across her face. This was a silly argument.

"No." Itachi was not budging on his answer.

"Then why do you have a name?" Itachi didn't seem like he knew the answer either. "The book describes reapers as damned. Like it some kind of punishment."

Itachi curiously tilted his head at her. "I don't know."

Itachi stood close to Hinata while she shopped. Despite knowing people would go through him, her instinct was to constantly move him out of the way of passers-by. Had he ever just walked around a grocery store? It felt familiar. Like he had done it before. The odd echo of music being played to get rid of the awkwardness of a group of people ignoring each other as they went about their day.

Hinata tossed a couple of packs of prepackaged noodles in her basket. Itachi reached for them to put them back on the shelf but stopped short. Why did he want to do that? It wasn't healthy, but why did he feel the need to stop her?

The questions bothered him until she moved to produce, putting vegetables in her basket. "No tomatoes?" Why did he ask that?

"Hmm?" Hinata looked at the bunch of tomatoes. "You don't usually put tomatoes in noodles."

Itachi didn't understand what was happening.

"These aren't healthy." Hinata's basket was pulled out of her hand by one of the men she worked with, not the one with the dog.

"Shino-kun." Hinata tried to pull the basket back, but held it far enough away to stop her.

"It's all junk food garbage." Shino gave her a look.

"I put vegetables in." Hinata whimpered. "I can't cook."

Shino sighed, giving her back the basket and adjusting his hands back into his jacket. "You can come to my place for dinner."

Hinata huffed. "I don't think that's…"

"He's asking you out," Itachi told her.

Hinata stopped her head from turning to give him an irritated look on her face. Interesting. "I can't. I have plans."

"It doesn't have to be tonight." Shino relented. Hinata pressed her lips in a line. "I'll catch you sometime after work."

"Maybe." Hinata relented.

Humans and their love stories. Many times it was boring to watch and repetitive. Many ended before they started, and some ended with tragedy. Some ended with Itachi showing up. This one may work if Hinata stopped isolating herself. Though it looked one-sided at the moment, most friendships that shifted to more started off that way.

Hinata stood there awkwardly for a moment more before grabbing a tomato. "I'll see you at the shop." She bowed her head and grabbed the edge of Itachi's coat on her way back, pulling it close to her, so it was obvious she was holding on to something as she turned to leave.

"You're quick to turn him down," Itachi commented.

Hinata bit her lip as she checked out and side-eyed him. She was so easily embarrassed. She collected her groceries, and once she was out of the store, she turned to glare at him. Well, maybe. She couldn't hold it. She sighed and rubbed her face to get rid of the redness.

Hinata sucked in a gasp, and her face turned white. Itachi blinked as her eyes locked on to something behind him. He looked behind him and saw nothing obvious. "Lost soul."

"What?" Itachi looked again, he didn't see one, but they weren't always obvious.

Hinata's hands shivered as she juggled her bags to take the ring off, but with her hands full, she was struggling. She was desperate to remove it. Itachi closed his hand over the ring, and they disappeared and reappeared around the corner from her apartment.

Hinata gasped, putting her hand on her chest, clutching at her coat as she tried to breathe normally. "I hate that feeling."

"Felling?" It seemed almost violent.

Hinata pulled at the coat on her chest. "They feel… awful. I thought I was panicking because of Shino-kun." She could feel the lost souls?

"I didn't even see one." If he went back, would he be able to find it?

Hinata's face twisted, confused. "They look like black smudges."

Itachi shook his head. "They just look like souls."

"Is that what I look like?" Hinata stood up straight like she was convincing herself that she felt fine, but Itachi could still see the shaking of her hands.

"You look human," Itachi explained.

Hinata opened her mouth like she didn't understand, but she shook her head. "Here" She pulled the tomato out of the top of the bag. Itachi blinked at it. "Didn't you want it?"

"I don't eat," Itachi told her flatly.

"Don't and can't are different." Hinata held it closer.

Itachi took it and watched her start off toward her apartment. Why did he want a tomato?