Hello! For those of you who knows my fic "The Shinigami Side Effect", this is another take on it that has been on my mind for months now. I hope you'll like it!
Disclaimer: The characters are Masashi Kishimoto's property, I own the OCs.
It was a slippery slope he was too eager to jump on.
"The same as usual Itachi-san?" Kisame asked him once their mission was over. Who knew when would be the next one.
"Hn." Kisame grinned widely.
"Have a nice time with the kid then."
The kid. She was far from being a kid. Itachi made his way quietly in the Land of Grass to a village near the border of the Land of Waterfalls and the Land of Earth. The small village was buzzing with activity now they were so close to the Summer Festival. She was not at the tea house she worked at though.
He didn't ask the owner about it. The less people knew about her connection with him, the safer she would be. It was a civilian village, but shinobi would come sometimes. If oinin were to find her, she would probably be in troubles too so…
He left the village for the woods. Fifteen minutes later, he was in front of a wooden cabin as the bottom of a hill. He opened the door quietly, peeking in the living-room. There was no one, but he heard noises from the bedroom.
"Who's…here?" a weak voice asked, the door of the bedroom now opened.
"Just me," he replied, frowning at seeing her leaning against the doorframe and her flushed skin.
"Oh, hey 'tachi."
"Are you sick?"
"Heat stroke. Members or descendants of the Yuki clan aren't known to be very resistant or useful when it's hot. We've had a…unusually hot week." She went back to bed. He followed her, removing his shoes and Akatsuki coat, as well as his hitai-ate.
He never wore it when he was here and with her.
The curtains in her room were closed, the room darkened. There was a fan on next to her bad, towels on her bed and ice packs on it. Looking at her more closely, she was wearing a very short pair of light shorts and a light camisole she had tied around her ribcage, her long, wavy auburn hair in a high bun on her head. Sweat was clinging to her skin.
"Do you have to stare at me when I look disgusting?" she complained, her brown eyes looking at his through her thick and long lashes. He didn't find her disgusting though.
"Hn." He took an ice pack as she was putting them back on her. "It's melted."
"It's still cool. I used my Hyoton to make them, not my brightest moment a second after." She chuckled as he checked her temperature, a hand on her cheek. "Earlier, I couldn't say two words right."
"It is not laughing matter Akane."
Sasaki, born Uzumaki, Akane. Her mother had been Kushina's cousin, which led Akane to spend a few months in Konoha between the age of four and five after her brother died. Ironically, he was sick with the sickness Itachi also had.
She had met Shisui, befriended him and then met him. They had played together twice, and he had seen her fully three times. He had…it was embarrassing for him to admit, but he had spied on her several times to understand her more and find a way to talk to her. Even back then, she was a very cute girl. She had mistaken him for a girl and treated him normally. Her being a foreigner meant she didn't know about the Uchihas or his heir title. She treated him like someone normal and when she'd look at him, he almost felt as if she was seeing all of him.
Before he could talk to his crush, she had left with her mom, who until then had been away. Her father was not in the picture.
Years later, as she had become a distant childhood memory he never forgot, Shisui was sent on a mission. It was only a few weeks before he committed suicide. When he came back and mentioned Akane, Itachi had been surprised. He would sometimes wonder what had happened to her.
The answer was: the Bloody Mist. Shisui had been sent to get her out of it after she had been forced to join it, from what her mother had told the Hokage. She was different, broken, but Shisui told him she'd heal from it with time. She had potential apparently, flew through promotions in the two years she had been in Kiri, but did not want to use it. She wanted nothing to do with shinobi.
He couldn't blame her. Had things been different, he would not have picked up a kunai either.
The night he killed himself, Shisui asked him to keep an eye on her for him, said he was breaking the promise he had made her and that he had written a letter to her that needed to be delivered. He did when he left Konoha, watching from his spot Akane, now thirteen like him and still cute and pretty, fall to her knees in tears.
Reuniting with her when they were seventeen was a coincidence. Her traveling with them until she found the place she lived at now, until she was on her own was his decision to fulfill the promise he had made Shisui. Becoming her friend and falling deeply in love with her was unexpected, but he had come to accept it and enjoy it while he could. He had stopped thinking of it as a mistake. He had stopped thinking that his heart fluttering at the sight of her teasing brown eyes, her long mahogany slightly wavy hair, turned-up nose and bow-shaped lips was a mistake, like the way her smile was making him feel warm inside.
The way his body was reacting to hers, attracted like a magnet to hers was natural and if she reciprocated, there was no reason to fight it, like the way his knees were weak sometimes around her.
She was his girlfriend, and he loved her more than she knew, or more he would allow himself to say. It was only in the night, where she would be sleeping, would he authorize his mind to fantasize about what kind of life they could have had together in other circumstances, what their children would have looked like. It would break his heart to think it would never happen but would also make him smile just to think about an impossible future.
"Sorry, I can't greet you properly." With a hug and a kiss.
"It's alright." He left to wet a white cloth in the bathroom and put it on her forehead.
"That's the stuff," she whispered, relief on her face. "Can I get a kiss?" He didn't ask for more and leaned toward her, his lips softly kissing hers. He felt her smile against him.
"Are you hungry?" he asked her quietly, his lips still grazing hers.
"Thirsty. There are…water bottles in the fridge." He brought her one, that she drank quickly. "You're missing the nurse outfit." He cocked a brow at her. "You could be in your underwear instead." He took his shirt off. "…oh, that works too," she said, eyeing him appreciatively.
When he'd get a crisis, Akane would nurse him back to health as much as he could without complaining, even if it would get worst as time went by. She would welcome him to her home even with his past and the blood on his hands.
She was soothing the aching scars he had and helped him keep going.
Sasuke, in his life, was like gravity. He kept him grounded to Earth, kept him on his path, no matter how dark it was.
Akane was like the sun. She was casting light on his world that had turned gray a long time ago. She was always in color in his world, giving color and warmth back to what she would touch, him included.
The affection he had had for Izumi when he was younger paled in comparison. No matter what he had done, he still felt like Akane was seeing right through him and knew the words behind his silence. He wouldn't be surprised if she had figured out the reason behind the murder of his clan.
Despite all of that, he struggled to show his affection to her. In bed he could fully show it to her, but when it came to hugging, or kissing, he would struggle to do it. He didn't feel like he had any right to feel happy with anyone or show affection, yet it was what he wanted to do with her.
Had he not set his brother on a path of hatred and vengeance, he would have taken her somewhere nobody would ever find them to live his life quietly with her, trying to find a way to cure his disease. Maybe, in a different world, he had had a life with her, and children and they lived happily together.
He didn't want to lose his sun.
"You're more quiet than usual," she told him in the evening, now up.
"Thinking." She put her finger on his chest and ran it up and down.
"I'm hungry now, for food." She gave him a hug though, and he returned it.
If she was the one giving affection, he strangely had no issue returning it. She knew he struggled with it though, so she would let him have his space in bed or when they were outside. The one time she asked if they could hold hands, he refused, and she had not tried again ever since.
A part of him was sad that she would not try again.
"Itachi." He looked up from his book when she got home one day. "Your brother is in the village." He frowned.
"Are you sure?"
"I don't think there are many people who walk around with the Uchiha crest on their back." He looked down thoughtfully. He was aware Orochimaru was dead but…it was not time yet.
And, selfishly, he didn't want to say goodbye yet.
"I should leave then."
"Or, or…" She rummaged through a book of seals. "Ha, here! I can use a seal to erase your chakra signature!"
"I doubt it would be enou…" She sat him back down, biting her bottom lip.
"I'm going to find something, but don't leave, please," she asked him quietly.
It would be safer, if Sasuke were to find her…even if he would make her train to make sure she was safe, his brother had the Sharingan and genjutsu was not her forte. He didn't want her to get caught between and Sasuke's deserved vengeance.
Yet, he found himself unable to say 'no'. He would leave her alone so he could die at some point, saying 'no' to other things was almost impossible. He let her do her thing, staring at her as she was applying the seal to his skin, knowing it would make her blush.
He had to admit she seemed to know what she was doing to erase his presence, from chakra to scent.
"Nothing I haven't done before," she muttered when he asked her. "I'm going to see if he's still around."
"Akan…"
"You don't move."
He did as he was told. She came back two hours later, disturbed.
"They left."
"'They'?" She pursed her lips.
"He has a companion, it's Su…" She gulped. "I know it's weird, but could you get Hoshigaki-san to come here?"
"If you want to."
His love, because that was how he would refer to her in his mind, was elsewhere until Kisame arrived.
"It is unusual," Kisame stated, grinning at Akane when he saw her. They…Akane did not like him, at all, yet respected him in a way he never saw her do with anyone else. Kisame loved to taunt her but didn't try to harm her or anything, even if he would talk about it.
At first, he had thought it was because of him, but now, he realized it was something else. Akane had been in Kiri, so they had to know each other from back then.
"Do you know about Mangetsu's whereabouts?" Kisame's grin fell. Itachi frowned. He had heard that name before. Wasn't he called the 'Second Coming of the Demon' or something?
Had he not died years ago?
"Kid…"
"Suigetsu isn't in Kiri anymore, I saw him with his brother. Mangetsu wouldn't have let that happened so what…"
"He died at sixteen." She widened her eyes in horror and shock.
"No…no, Mangetsu…he could almost use all swords when I…he wouldn't…he couldn't have died just like that…was he sick or something? It…"
"It was during a mission from what I know kid." Itachi wasn't blind. Kisame knew more than he was letting on.
"You can leave." He did just that.
Akane looked at him.
"You can too if you want." It was unexpected.
"I thought…"
"I want to be alone," she said stiffly, going to her room. She shut the door behind her.
Whatever relationship they had in Kiri, it was enough for Akane to break down. He left her alone until the evening. He made food for two and knocked on the door, opening it a little without waiting for an answer.
"Are you hungry?"
"No."
He put her food in the fridge and got ready for bed, shooting her one last look before going on the couch. In all honesty, if she was here, he didn't like not sleeping in her bed with her. He wanted to be around her as much as possible, even if they didn't do much together or they were both doing their own thing.
He was a light-sleeper and woke up when he felt someone watching him. He sat up in the couch, squinting at the silhouette against the doorway of the bedroom. Without a word, she went back inside, leaving the door opened.
He didn't waste time to join her. Her back was facing him. He knew she needed comfort right now. But when he thought about hugging her, his body froze. It was almost as if after what he had done, his body refused to make the first move regarding affection.
He closed his eyes instead, asking for her forgiveness in his mind when he knew she needed him.
She needed him and he couldn't provide her with a simple embrace. He hated himself for that.
On their last night together, he did his best to convey all of the feelings he had he never had the courage to tell her about. In the morning, as she was still sleeping, her hair a mess, he glanced at the ruby pendant around her neck. It was the only gift he had given.
In his eyes, it represented the same thing as a wedding ring.
He left. He left after using his sharingans on her when she tried to keep him from leaving. He left after he finally said the three little words she had been telling him for months and months without ever hearing the same in return.
He watched over her and her family from the Pure Land until he saw her summon the Shinigami.
"My my my oh my." He spun around, now away from the others who also were watching his love dying. She was going to die and wouldn't join him like she was supposed to.
"Who are you?" The red-haired man bowed.
"Otsutsuki Tensui. Well, Uzumaki Tensui. You have been chosen to be a watching soul, congratulations!" He frowned. "For the Yuurei? No, it doesn't ring a bell?"
"Akane?"
"Yes, her, the new Yuurei." Tensui sighed. "I guess it got lost in time. Yuureis are, were, the reason for the strength and fame of the Uzumaki clan. You are an Uchiha, you have the Mangekyou. Well, Yuureis are born the same way in a way. If an Uzumaki summons the Shinigami, they are sent to Yomi, its realm, and face its judgement. If they have enough regrets over their life, then they have a shot at doing it again, their soul sent back in their younger body. It is more often than not before the event that caused them regrets happened. Now." Tensui snapped his fingers, sending them in a rocky scenery of black nd white. The sun was black above them and a single red tori was visible at the end of the valley below them. "Due to your bond, you are part of the Yuurei's regrets and are going to become her watching soul, stuck in Limbo to prevent her from falling in Yomi if she ever…almost dies."
"I have to watch her doing everything over again?" He snapped again and now they were in a green and luscious clearing.
"Itachi?" He blinked and turned around. Akane was there, staring at him with wide eyes. In front of her was a woman, her hand close to her stomach.
"Why did you do that?" he asked her immediately. She pursed her lips. "I know you have protected him, but there were other ways."
"I didn't have the time to think of one. Why are you here, this doesn't concern you!" He glared at her.
"He's your watching soul," Tensui pipped in. Akane shook her head vigorously.
"No, you're supposed to fucking rest Itachi! It's something I have to do, not you! If I fail, you…you'll end up there as well and…"
"You think I'm going to let you do something like that without doing anything?" She frowned.
"You can't do anything except…you're supposed to rest, and now I have a shot at giving this other you a better, long and happy life!"
"I don't care." She bit her bottom lip, shaking her head.
"You don't ge…"
"I do get it. I'm not going to let you turn yourself into a martyr like I did Akane. You deserve better than that."
"I don't, I really don't. I've spent my life running and enjoyed the sacrifices of others when I could have done something, I…it's my turn to doing something right this ti…" She was interrupted by his lips on her, his hands on her cheeks. She was so shocked she had not even closed her eyes.
"I am not leaving you alone again, period. Nothing you can say will make me change my mind," he whispered against her lips, his onyx eyes staring deep in hers.
"Really?" the woman asked him. He turned his eyes to her, keeping Akane close to him.
"Yes." She put her finger on her lips.
"Then let's change things." Tensui raised his brow when she looked at him. "What was the event?"
"Huh…the death of one Uchiha Shisui. They saw each other shortly before he died."
"He was weird, I knew it but didn't ask about it," Akane explained quietly. He took her hand in his and squeezed it.
"Hum…we need to go further."
"Well there is th…" The woman dug her hand in Akane's stomach, who opened her mouth in a silent scream.
He never heard the end of Tensui's sentence because everything turned to black. He just kept holding Akane's hand, hoping it would keep her by his side.
"Itachi?" Itachi's lids fluttered as he slowly woke up. It was strange. The last thing he remembered was saying goodbye to Sasuke as he undid the Edo Tensei. So how…
He looked to the side, freezing in shock at the sight of his living, breathing mother. Mikoto put her hand on his forehead, checking his temperature.
"Mom?" he called her in a small, timid voice. Next to her was a sleeping baby Sasuke, quiet in his bassinet.
"Who else would be taking care of you when you are sick young man?" Mikoto replied with a smile. "How are you feeling?"
"I…" He put his fingers on his neck. His pulse was there. His mother chuckled.
"Now Itachi, you suddenly had a big fever and fainted, but you did not die from that!" She was taken back when she noticed the silent tears falling on his cheeks. "Itachi, why are you crying?" He put his hand to his cheek.
"I…" His lips started to quiver, and a lump was in his throat. "Mom, I…" She embraced him before he could finish his sentence.
"Now, whatever it is, it is okay Itachi. Mom is here and nothing is going to hurt you." He started sobbing uncontrollably.
He wasn't sure of what was happening, how this was even possible, but if this was a dream, he didn't want it to end.
So here's the first chapter. I hope you have liked it, please do let me know in reviews!
Bye!