Tears gathered in Harumi's eyes as she continued to run as fast as she could. She'd probably been running for twenty minutes, trying to get far enough that if he noticed, he would be too late. She could have never imagined she'd be running from her best friend, much less because he was trying to kill her. Itachi Uchiha, how could he do this? How could he kill the only other people she'd ever loved? How did he kill his own family? It was true, she was never close with those in her clan, and though she hated it, she couldn't feel that much pain from their death, only for those poor mothers who were trying to protect their children. She hoped she left undetected, but she knew him well. The moment Itachi realized he hadn't killed her, he'd come after her to finish the job.
Tears continued to spill from her eyes. Having watched her cousin's body bleed out when she came out from the cellar...the image would forever haunt her. And the rest of her clan, they were all...dead. The last family member she had left, she was gone too. Because of him. 'God damn you' she thought, her hands shaking in anger.
Just then, she suddenly tripped over a rock and collided with the ground.
"Ouch! What the hell?" she gasped.
She carefully looked back to see it wasn't a rock. It was a body. A Hidden Leaf ninja's body. Her eyes widened, thought rushing through her mind. It couldn't have been Itachi, he must've still been in the village. It then clicked in her head. There must have been enemies here. She considered turning back to go warn the villagers, but remembered her situation again. She slowly pulled out a kunai when she heard the trees rustling. She wasn't in any shape to fight, she had just been discharged from the hospital this morning after being gravely injured on a mission.
"Well well well, who are you?" a sudden voice asked behind her.
Harumi turned around in shock to see a ninja without a headband, blood on his kunai and some splattered on his clothes. "Who are you?" she asked, her glare intensifying.
The man smirked before saying, "Habiki, at your service," as he dramatically bowed.
"What are you doing in the Hidden Leaf village?" she narrowed her eyes.
"Well, me and my pals were in the mood for a little chaos."
"Pals?"
There was more rustling in the trees and about ten other ninja appeared. Harumi felt her blood run cold, an even worse feeling than before. She could sense it, they were strong and she wouldn't be able to fight them, not in her condition.
"I'll need you to come with us, little miss," Habiki whispered as he moved closer to her.
She threw her kunai at him which he dodged with ease, so she began weaving hands signs for a fire ball jutsu but before she could complete them, someone behind her kicked her back, hard, and with her injuries, it hurt a hell of a lot more than she expected.
'Damn you Itachi, this is your fault,' she thought with a groan. She felt weak and pathetic, neither of which she usually was, but her injuries weren't light ones because of those stupid anbu black ops from the Hidden Mist. Habiki grabbed her hands to put ropes on them, reminding her to behave as she thrashed and kicked in their hold.
Harumi screamed in pain, the electric current being shot through her body getting worse by the minute. Her hands were tied above her head by a rope as she hung from the roof, her feet a few centimeters off the ground. The female and male ninja looked annoyed at her stubbornness.
"Tell us what we want to know, damn it!" yelled the girl as she hit Harumi across the face with the baton again.
"Hell no," Harumi spat, her eyes never losing their fire. She wasn't sure how she hadn't broken down crying yet with all that had happened. Nearly dying on a mission, her best friend's betrayal, her cousin's death at the hands of her best friend, being kidnapped and now tortured, it would've broken her had the adrenaline not been pumping through her body.
"Woah woah woah, be easy on our guest, we wouldn't want her passing out just yet," Habiki entered the room. He tilted Harumi's chin up slightly, looking up deep into her eyes as he smirked.
"Come on doll, all you've got to do is tell us where the scrolls are, and then we'll let you go," he smirked.
She glared. He wanted the infamous scrolls of the first hokage. She knew how important it was and how it had many forbidden jutsus were in each, but she wondered which village had the guts to try and steal it. Had they tortured the poor Hidden Leaf ninja she'd seen earlier before killing him too? She bit her tongue, knowing there was no way in hell these guys were going to let her live even if she did fess up. But…
"Promise?" she shakily asked.
Habiki nodded, happy with her decision. Harumi opened her mouth to answer, but instead shot her leg up hard into his groin. He groaned and stepped away before looking up at her, his smirk still on his face as he glared.
"You bitch!" the girl from earlier yelled as she punched her again, repeating the action over and over.
"Calm down Michi, I'm fine," Habiki sucked on his teeth.
Harumi's cheek and stomach began to bruise, yet she had never been more happy with a beating. She'd been meaning to kick that guy as soon as he entered the room.
"Now, that was a bad move, missy, it's going to cost you a lot of pain you could've avoided. I'll come back in an hour, and then we'll see if you're ready to talk," said Habiki.
"Go to hell," she spat, feeling her limbs aching while a voice in her head told her to just give in and rip them all to shreds.
He had expected her to be talking or even begging by the time he came back but when he did, he was shocked. Even with all they had done to her, there hung a bloody, bruised girl hanging from the ceiling who refused to say a word. He was surprised, for a kid, she had pretty tight lips. He tsked, realizing she wasn't going to talk.
"Well, I was really hoping we would've broken you by now, but if you've held out this far, there's just no use. I'm afraid you've reached the end of the line," he sighed.
"Huh, it's going to take a lot more than a few measly jutsu and punches to break me. Do your worst," Harumi's voice rasped as she smirked while her whole body screamed in pain.
Habiki let out a small laugh, wishing he could have met the feisty girl under different circumstances, one were they were allies. He pulled out a kunai and held it to her neck. She tensed, her breathing stopping for a moment. Was she…really going to die? In this place? No, no that wasn't right.
Don't do anything. Wait.
Just as Habiki was getting ready to slice it, a loud bang was heard from upstairs.
His eyes widened as he dropped it and ran upstairs, checking to see what happened with the other two ninja that were down there with him. What he didn't see was that Harumi had caught the kunai between the ends of her feet. She began swinging her body back and forth before she threw the kunai up in the air and caught it with her hands. She moved it back and forth until it cut through the rope binding her. The sounds from upstairs were getting louder which covered the sound of her body falling to the floor.
It felt like she was being stabbed a hundred times over, but she got up nonetheless. She was incredibly dizzy, so she was using the walls to help her weak body support its weight. She soon saw a back door and pushed it open, being greeted with the viridian forest. She used all the close trees to push herself forward, not aware where she was going, just that she needed to get away. She soon heard footsteps behind her, but they sounded familiar, soft and slow. They were the very footsteps that used to make her smile when she heard them, but ones that now struck her with a paralyzing fear. She tried to go faster but only ended up falling, her vision beginning to blur with black dots. She slowly turned her body, laying on her back as her blurry vision saw him come into view.
"No, please no, please," Harumi cried out, tears streaming down her face as she tried to push her body further away from him.
She saw Itachi reaching out his hand to grab her, and she whimpered in pain, thinking of how miserable she had just spent the last moments of her life.
"Please Itachi, don't do this," she looked at him pleadingly, moments before she was engulfed in darkness.
Harumi slowly opened her eyes, squinting as the light shone in them. She groaned, her entire body in pain. She slowly sat up and looked at her body, her bandages wrapped in bandages. Suddenly, she remembered everything. The murder, the kidnapping, Itachi. She quickly got out of bed, but the moment she stood up, she fell to the ground. This was getting too old. She heard footsteps coming and panicked trying to move. The door opened and revealed the person she was dreading to see, Itachi.
"No no no, get away from me!" she yelled as she threw the lamp next to her at him.
"Calm down, let me help-" Itachi was saying as he dodged but was cut off.
"NO! YOU STAY AWAY!" Harumi yelled as she began to shake.
He stopped for a moment before looking at her once more, seeing all her injuries only fueled his internal anger. He walked over to her calmly, despite her warnings. "I said stay away!" she reiterated, looking into the black eyes she once adored. He ignored her and kneeled in front of her. He tried to grab her but she slapped his hand away.
"Don't touch me you murderer! You killed her...you killed them!" she forced out, tears welling up in her eyes before she pushed them down. Mikoto, his mother, was gone. The sweet woman who took care of her after everything that had happened, despite everyone warning her not to. She gritted her teeth, pushing it to the back of her mind, physically unable to handle the thought of her gone.
Itachi's eyes softened for a moment before he picked up the thrashing girl and put her back on the bed. She kept yelling at him not to touch her, yelling asking why he'd killed her family. The moment he stepped away from her, she tried to get up again, causing him to sigh and lightly push her back down.
"You need to rest."
"Don't tell me what I need! You murdered everything I needed!"
Itachi sighed again as he prepared to leave, but her words stopped him.
"Why? You were my best friend, but these past few weeks, you were acting distant and stopped talking to me, you avoided me and ignored me. You wouldn't let me go on missions with Shisui anymore," she furrowed her brows, Itachi looking back at her. "I thought it was something I did, but then, the next thing I know, you're killing everyone. But why'd you do it? Why?" She wanted to ask about Mikoto, or even little Sasuke, but the very thought of them dying…she knew she would rip her own skin off if she accepted that they were dead. She would truly break. So far as she was concerned, they managed to get away.
Itachi felt his heart clench painfully. He knew exactly where she was coming from. From her perspective, he had put a great distance between them, ignored her whenever she tried to talk to him, avoided her whenever he saw her. He never missed the disappointment, sadness, and confusion on her face. The amount of times she came to his house, asked if he was there and kept Sasuke company when she saw he was missing him too. How she left letters for him, asking if he was okay after every mission he came back from. How when she saw him leaving for missions on rainy days, she would beg him to talk to her, to tell her what she had done wrong.
When he heard how hurt she had gotten on her mission, he was furious, because he remembered her last letter saying that it was going to be a tough mission, and she asked if he wanted to accompany her. He ignored it as always, but never imagined the consequences of it. Harumi was one of the village's strongest kunoichi, it was well known by everyone, whether they liked her or not. She could always handle herself, but even she would have trouble trying to protect her teammates and her client while fighting anbu black ops.
When he was getting ready to slaughter his clan, he expected her to be in the hospital. When he went there and saw she wasn't there, he realized she must've been discharged. He looked around the forest for her, and when he saw the dead leaf ninja, fear struck through his body as he wondered if the next body he found would be Harumi's. Then, he saw her kunai stuck to the tree, and he knew it was hers due to the blue ribbons she always tied around her weapons, in case someone needed to know if she was there or not. She was good at tracking, and would always leave those kunais along her trail if she went ahead of her teammates.
He first wondered if she had missed her target. But he knew better. Harumi never missed, her aim was beyond incredible compared to a normal ninja, and he knew it came from her love of weaponry. It was one of the reasons he loved training with her, because he was never worried his weapons would strike her, he knew she could always throw her own if need be. The kunai in the tree was her declaration that she was there, and he might have been wrong, but he felt as though she was telling him she was there, almost asking him to accompany her like she originally wanted him to.
When he found the house the enemies were in, he killed them all, and only missed one of them. A ninja who had come running upstairs who used a substitution jutsu to escape. He wanted to kill him, but realized he had not yet found his target, the caring girl who always asked him if he was alright. He went downstairs to see where she was, but saw the back door open. After walking for a little, he saw her pushing herself forward and falling. His eyes widened when he saw to state she was in, all bloody and bruised. He didn't know how long she was with them, and how long they tortured her to get information, or at least that's what he assumed they were trying to do. The fact that she wasn't dead yet told him she refused to say anything.
When she looked at him with those tear stained eyes of hers, those cries and pleads to live, it nearly broke him. Her body had been fighting so hard to stay conscious and alive, how was he supposed to bring himself to kill someone who'd been fighting for who knows how long to survive? When she passed out, he had watched her for a while, trying to decide what to do. He pulled out his sword and tried to kill her, put her out of her misery, but all he could see were the tears left on her cheeks, ones he never wanted to place there. All he could see was his dear friend in unimaginable pain, yet still fighting for a chance at survival.
He couldn't kill her after that, so he brought her to this abandoned house and re-bandaged her wounds.
"Itachi?" Harumi spoke up, breaking his train of thought.
"You wouldn't understand," he simply put, looking away.
"Then why am I alive? Why didn't you just kill me? You're still planning on it, aren't you? So just do it, kill me," she gripped the sheets deadly tight. "The only regret I'll have is not coming out of the cellar while you were killing my cousin."
Ah, so that's where she was, the cellar in her basement. No wonder he hadn't realized she was there. "You need to rest," he repeated.
"Damn it Itachi! Just tell me why you're doing all this!" she yelled. When he wouldn't answer her, she got angrier.
"Listen, I hate you so much right now that I can't even bear it. It's true, me and my cousin were never close, she was never around, she may as well have left me the house, but at least she tried to help me! The only other person who tried to help me when no one else in our clan would was you! The only other person I loved was you! I loved you! So why? Why can't you tell me why I'd ever have to replace all that love with hate?" asked Harumi.
"I never wanted this, I never wanted to cause all this pain," said Itachi.
"But you did, so just tell me why!" said Harumi.
Itachi just left, leaving her alone in a room with so many questions that it was killing her. Soon, her soft sniffles and cries filled the room, and it broke his heart all over again. He wanted to tell her, but he wasn't sure she'd understand and he swore he would never tell anyone. Yet, here was a girl he was supposed to kill in the next room, asking for answers he didn't think she wanted.
It would turn her world more upside down than it already was. He sighed, he didn't have time for this. He would decide what to do with her later. Itachi left her in the cabin, hoping he'd have a solution by the time he got back. After all, he couldn't have Madara finding out about her. He would have another weakness now if that were true.
Harumi, on the other hand, was really feeling the backlash of yesterday. She noticed that nearly her whole body had been bandaged; her feet, her arms, her waist. It was rather embarrassing. How could she be pathetic enough to let herself be captured by the enemy? She brought her knees up to her chest as she hugged them, thinking that her mother would be so disappointed in her if she were here now, and that man would probably call her weak and punish her. She quickly shook her head and rested it on her knees. That man was gone, he couldn't hurt her anymore, she was safe.
Her past was one not known by anyone, and those who did, were dead. Not even Itachi knew the whole story, only bits and pieces when she would slip up and drop a clue of what might've happened. She sighed before her aura suddenly took a serious turn, and she began using her chakra to heal her waist and down. All she really needed was her legs to help her run, and though she didn't have any weapons, she just needed to find a village nearby to hide out for a while. As soon as she did, she'd figure out how to get some money.
Once she healed herself enough, she quickly got up and put on shoes. Itachi obviously thought she wouldn't be stupid enough to leave the cabin, and she knew that. Alas, she also knew he must have had at least five backup plans in case. She tried not to be too readable, and more often than not, she could be; but Itachi Uchiha was just another breed. She let out a soft laugh at the thought. Despite being closed off, he always managed to crack himself the smallest bit open around her, and she appreciated it, because it made her feel trustworthy. Her smile soon turned into a frown as she continued to walk through the forest, carefully looking for tripwires she didn't know if he put out or not.
She tried to think. Itachi was a kid genius, he already had the mentality of someone well beyond his years. What could've possessed him to kill his clan? She tried to think logically; was he threatened? Was it blackmail? No, it felt as though he wouldn't fall prey to either of those. Did he really kill everyone alone? She didn't doubt it, she knew he could with his skill set. She nipped at her thumb, reviewing their conversations. He never wanted to cause anyone any pain, but she already knew that, that boy had a heart of pure gold. His body language indicated he didn't want it to happen. Could he have been coerced by someone into doing this? Harumi bit her thumb harder; that made sense. Someone else must have convinced him that it was necessary. But why would it be necessary? Why would the slaughter of an entire clan be necessary? Were they getting too strong?
Her eyes widened, if he really did talk to someone, it must've been someone with a great amount of power to convince him. Was it someone outside the village? He had been on a lot of missions lately, but she felt like that wasn't it. She groaned, she couldn't think of who would want to kill everyone, and why they couldn't do it themselves if they had the power to persuade Itachi. The Uchiha had been a bit riled up recently, but they hadn't-
Harumi gasped before halting and whispering, "Wait…no, it couldn't be…"
Could the hokage have told him to do it?
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