Disclaimer: Naruto and everything in the Narutoverse is earned by Kishimoto. I'm merely a fan.
On more than one occasion, Itachi had likened her to an inanimate object with nonexistent opinions on the missions that were handed to her. Back then she had been naive enough to think that this was the worst insult the members of the Akatsuki could inflict on her. Once she arrived at the headquarters in Kawagakure she realized how sheltered she had been. Hidan and Kakuzu not only referred to wards as objects, they also treated them as such. A ward was allowed to get out on the open when they had a mission to accomplish. Otherwise, they were stowed away in a cell under lock and key.
Shiori didn't see the light of day during the first week that she spent under the watch of whom Kisame referred to as the Zombie Combo. The spell was only broken when Konan requested for her on one mission, a short one which barely lasted an entire day. That afternoon in the doorsteps of the headquarters, she had broken down into a tearful mess in front of the kunoichi.
"I did everything they asked," she cried out in between breaths. "Why is he doing this to me?"
Shiori pulled her knees to her chest and rested her forehead on them in an attempt to calm her breathing. A minute passed before she felt hands on her arms. They pulled her up to a stand, allowing tearful gray eyes to meet consoling amber ones.
"One thing I learned about Itachi-san is that he never does anything without a motive that would benefit even those who received the short end of the stick. Hang in there."
Konan had the decency the give her enough time to get herself together before delivering her back to Kakuzu. It would take another two weeks before she had another chance to get out of her cell. During the long hours that she spent in darkness she had nothing but her thoughts to keep her company.
It had been a quiet day. The absence of the sound of footsteps from upstairs meant Hidan and Kakuzu spent most of their time doing field work. Shiori was ready to call it a night and had climbed into her lumpy futon when she heard her locks turning. Her door swung open revealing Hidan. His oversized scythe rested on his shoulder. If it wasn't for the fact that he was already bathed in blood, she would have been certain that he was there to sacrifice her to Jashin. Still, fear kept her seated in place. Shiori pulled the covers up to her chin.
"Hidan-san, to what do I owe this visit?" she asked nervously.
Hidan chuckled, gloating from the terror he had caused her.
"Take a guess," he replied.
Shiori could hear her blood pumping in her ears. "I'd rather not."
The immortal shinobi stepped into the room and leaned against her dresser, staining the wooden furniture with the blood of his victims.
"I just got into thinking is all," he started. "And now I'm curious. Tell me what it was you did that pushed someone as patient as the Uchiha to get rid of you. Honestly, I want to know."
She shrugged. "I keep asking myself the same thing. Perhaps he came to the conclusion that I'm more trouble than I'm worth."
"Aw, ain't that a shame."
Hidan pushed himself off the dresser and sauntered towards her, stopping at the foot of the futon.
"Hidan-san, please-!" Shiori yelped when he squatted in front of her. His manic grin didn't waver.
"I'm letting you in on a secret. We Jashinists believe that sacrifices who possess bloodline limits are more precious compared to your run-of-the-mill human meat." He lowered his voice into a whisper. "I've been dreaming of cutting that pretty little neck of yours since that day you showed to us what you're capable of."
And he would have impulsively indulged in the bloodlust had it not been for Itachi. Nobody, not even Deidara, would want to get to the Uchiha's bad side. Though avoidant by nature, the young shinobi was gifted in the art of violence, trained to kill before he could even walk. Hidan may be impulsive but he was not an idiot. The fact that Itachi requested updates of his ward's status every week told him that he had to step away and wait. He had to outlive the boy first before he could get his prize.
Hidan looked up to meet Shiori's gaze as she shook like a leaf.
"Sooner or later your boyfriend will meet his maker. When that day comes, I'll make sure you'll be the first soul to meet Jashin-sama."
Shiori could only stare in shock as Hidan walked out of her cell, closing the wooden door behind him with a loud thud. There was a sharp click indicating that the lock was engaged.
That night she didn't sleep a wink. Every echo in the empty hallway outside of her room made her jump. She feared that the sadistic Hidan would change his mind and come after her sooner the minute she closed her eyes. And then there was his warning. His tone suggested that it was never a matter of if Itachi dies but when. Despite the sickness he lived with, the possibility of losing him never felt imminent for Shiori. Itachi always, always found a way around things. And if he didn't, he somehow manages to keep himself in one piece. The same could be said with the other Akatsuki members. To her they were invincible. So when news of Sasori's demise reached their headquarters, the cold knife of fear ran down her back, paralyzing her for a few seconds. Even Kakuzu and Hidan did a double take.
Kakuzu sighed in disbelief. "A few of us are bound to die because of this tailed-beasts business but I never expected him to be the first to go."
Sasori's death was proof that the Akatsuki can be defeated. Shiori thought that if she could come to this conclusion then the hidden shinobi villages certainly have as well. Every member will be scrutinized for a weakness and then attacked methodically. Uchiha Itachi won't be exempted. Villages will be coming to get him. That is if Uchiha Sasuke doesn't get to him first.
Two Months Later:
The task wasn't anything special, another odd job she agreed to do for Kakuzu in exchange for a few days out of her cell. She needed to get information on a certain bounty exchange master manning the bounty station on a nearby village. The green-eyed shinobi listed one of the Kawagakure-nins as a probable source. After losing an entire day and night maintaining the headquarters' interior, Shiori wasted no time in getting down to business. She flirted shamelessly and treated the young man named Rui to a few shots of sake. It only took twenty minutes to get all the information she needed along with a rather scandalous scoop on a handful of clandestine affairs he had been having behind his wife's back. Now she needed to start moving out.
She eyed the two possible exits out of the izakaya. Normally she would have simply excused herself and disappeared, never to be seen again. However Kawagakure was a small village. She figured that if she was going to be stuck in it for a long time, she needed to avoid suspicion and act like a respectable local, starting with a plausible excuse to scram.
"It's been a pleasure drinking with you Shiori-san but I'm afraid I have to clock out early," Rui said, running his index finger along her bare arm. Shiori nearly screamed. Instead she crumpled her face into what she hoped would be a cute pout.
"But why, Rui-san? Am I boring you?" 'Yes. Go. Leave!'
"I need to provide backup in a few hours. My comrades are raiding the mansion at the south side of the river this very moment."
'The south side?' Shiori thought to herself. 'Surely he doesn't mean-'
"Turns out it was being used as a hideout by a criminal group named the Akatsuki. It's made up of a handful of S-rank missing-nins from different shinobi villages. Highly dangerous motherfuckers."
There was a long pause between them. Shiori could only stare at him as her mind attempted to digest this new information. She toyed with her empty shot glass.
"So...if they're as dangerous as you say they are then...that makes it a dangerous mission then. Aren't you scared of what could happen should you encounter one of them?" It didn't take much to conclude that Rui was just an average shinobi. He had no match against Hidan or Kakuzu, much less the two of them together.
The Kawa-nin snorted at her dismissively. "We'll only be dealing with a couple of their minions, nothing we can't handle. We received intel that the two Akatsuki members manning that place had been sucessfully neutralized by Konoha-nins yesterday afternoon."
"Neutralized. As in-"
"Killed. Assassinated. Put down. I forgot you don't speak shinobi..."
Shiori could care less about what he had to say. She had last spoken to Kakuzu on Monday at the crack of dawn. It didn't even cross her mind then that that had been their last conversation. And now...now she had been left alone in a place she knew so little about.
Before she could think twice, she grabbed the bottle of sake and poured herself three consecutive shots to keep the panic at bay. Rui lifted an eyebrow at her.
"You okay?"
Shori met his gaze and forced out a smile. "It's been a pleasure drinking with you, Rui-san. Please, don't let me stop you from proceeding with your mission."
As soon as the shinobi left, Shiori asked for the bill and hurriedly went into the small alley behind the crowded shop. She needed fresh air and a time to think. The dark-haired girl sighed and leaned against the cool cement wall.
"You can't go back in there," she murmured to herself. "They'll find out if you do."
And yet, staying in the streets of Kawagakure didn't sound too enticing either, not when all she had were the clothes on her back and a few loose change. The rest of her belongings were still in the headquarters. She was stranded.
A shadow fell over her, blocking the mild heat of the late afternoon sun. Shiori looked up to find Rui looking down at her with a sinister grin plastered on his face.
"Rui-san, what is it?" she asked.
"I forgot to tell you once important thing. We know you're with them Shiori-san. Intel even has a file of you. It's quite a useful gift you have there."
Shiori was on the run in an instant. The surge of adrenaline was enough to sober her up and soon she was flying in the back alleys of the village center with Rui hot on her heels.
"Stop it right there!" he screamed at her. Shiori ran faster, moving towards more crowded placed to stop him from throwing shurikens at her.
"Watch it!"
"Hey!"
"What in the world-!"
"Sorry!" Shiori apologized at the people she had flung at Rui's path without slowing down her pace. She rounded into a quiet corner lined with wooden crates and garbage cans when somebody grabbed her onto one side. A hand clamped over her mouth, signalling her to be quiet.
"Keep still," a familiar deep voice whispered in her ear, sending chills down her spine.
Before she could do anything, the man turned her away from the main road. He kept her still with one arm tightening around her waist and the other pressing her back flush against his chest. The dark heavy fabric of his cloak kept her hidden from sight.
Their close proximity made Shiori's pulse pick up speed. His scent, his arms, his voice...she could recognize him anywhere.
Once Rui had gone past them, she wriggled out of his grip and turned to look at him. She was greeted with the three-tomoe Sharingan of none other than Uchiha Itachi. For a moment, all she could do was stare at him. He neither smiled nor frowned at her. She didn't expect him to.
"Itachi...how...?"
Itachi took in her features, memorizing the subtle changes that the months have brought to her before speaking up.
"We have to get you out of here. You're not safe yet."
Without waiting for a reply, he took her in his arms and the two flickered out of their hiding place.
They reappeared three kilometers away in one of the few elevated clearings scattered around the hidden village. Itachi settled her down on her feet and she immediately started pacing back and forth. The shinobi watched her quietly before slumping on the ground with his back against the trunk of a large tree.
"Is it true?" Shiori asked, her gaze quickly flicking at his direction before focusing back to her shoes. She had no idea how to act around him. "Kakuzu-san and Hidan-san..."
"It is," Itachi replied flatly. "We were able to confirm it early but had no means of stopping the news from spreading."
"Right. Of course it is or you wouldn't be here. Where's Kisame-san?"
"In the headquarters dealing with the wards. They have to be silenced or they'll talk. Those men hold no loyalty to their handlers."
"Yeah, I wonder why," Shiori murmured to herself before turning to face Itachi. "But there are Kawa-nins in there right now."
He gave her a half-grin, "He won't touch them if they don't come after him first."
Shiori looked away from him instinctively. She felt on edge, as though any sound or movement was enough to make her jump out of her skin.
During the countless days she had been kept locked in her cell she had imagined how she would act around her former lover should he come to see her once again. She had imagined and rehearsed a handful of reactions: Nonchalant. Resentful. Angry. Very angry.
None of her planned reactions involved fumbling around like a nervous schoolgirl.
'He's just a boy, Shiori!' she scolded herself. 'Get your act together will you?'
She scratched on a wet patch on her back, thinking it was sweat that had soaked through. She was startled to see her hand come out bloody. Shiori flapped around trying to find the source of the bleeding but found none.
"This blood isn't mine."
She paused on her tracks and her gaze fell on Itachi. He hadn't moved from his spot near the tree. A closer look showed that he actually looked paler and more gaunt than she rememered. There were dark rings under his heavy-lidded eyes and his breath was coming out in shallow puffs.
"Right. About that..."
"Dammit! Why didn't you say anything?!"
She had kneeled down in front of the young man and took his cloak off of him revealing a blood-stained mesh shirt. She glared at him.
"May I?"
Itachi nodded before looking away onto the horizon on his left. Shiori peeled his shirt upward, revealing glistening pale skin and a wound dressing on the left side of his ribcage. The dressing was soaked through with blood.
"Here goes," she warned him before peeling the bandages away. Though he didn't make a sound, the way his entire torso stiffened clued her in that he was in pain. A lot of it.
"The wound looks deep. It also looks like it's been there for a while."
Without skipping a beat, she reached for the first aid kit attached to his hip and started cleaning the offensive gash.
"I got it in Amegakure two nights ago. One of their shinobi nicked me with his kunai," he explained, hissing as the disinfectant seeped into the cut.
"Really? He sure got lucky."
Worry simmered at the pit of her stomach. It wasn't like him to have this kind of accident. Itachi was known for his counterattacks. A random kunai unaccounted by him was unheard of. Despite everything, Shiori kept these thoughts to herself. She was so immered with the task that she didn't even notice him staring.
Only Kami knew how he had longed to be able to see her once again. It was odd in itself considering he was the one who pushed her away. The weekly updates from Kakuzu was only enough to stop him from bouncing against the walls but it did nothing to fill the gaping void she had unknowingly ripped inside him with her absence. Cheesy but true.
But perhaps the most difficult part for him had been to maintain the facade of indifference, particularly in front of Kisame who had come to know him better than any other member of the Akatsuki. Once the shark-man had asked him why he checked up on his ward every so often. Itachi explained to him that he wanted to be kept up-to-date with everything that he was in-charge of. It wasn't a far-off lie. He had always been meticulous.
"Perhaps you shouldn't have gotten rid of her in the first place," Kisame pointed out. Itachi knew exactly what he was doing. He was trying to get him to spill. But without a straight confession from him, the older shinobi couldn't prove anything.
"She slows us down. We don't need that kind of burden if we're going to be hunting tailed-beasts."
"Try saying that more convincingly and maybe I'll believe you," the swordsman teased but decided to drop the subject.
It took a lot from him but it worked. Keeping up his facade meant suspicions had been kept at bay. He managed to keep both of them safe.
But fucking Hell has he had enough of facades.
He brought his left hand under her chin and gently tilted her face up towards him, making her pause.
Shiori gave him a small smile. With his Sharingan deactivated, he looked younger and more vulnerable than he normally looked. She hated to admit it but she found her anger chipping away the longer she looked at those puppy eyes.
'Well shit. I'm whipped,' she thought to herself.
"We need to talk," he said.
"Damn right we do. We needed that talk months ago." She cupped his cheek with one hand. "But first things first, we need to patch you up."
She frowned when she looked down and saw that the gauze was beginning to soak through yet again.
"This can't be right," she said. "The bleeding hasn't stopped."
"That's because he's been poisoned."
Kisame appeared from behind the thick bushes surrounding the clearing. Unlike Itachi, he looked exactly as she remembered him even down to his sword, the Samehada which growled menacingly on his back.
Shiori blinked at him a couple of times before shifting her gaze back and forth between him and Itachi.
"Poison? Poison-are you kidding me?"
The younger shinobi looked at his partner disapprovingly.
Kisame continued, "Yes Shio-chan. The kunai that wounded him was dipped in poison, the kind that prevents wounds from closing up. Nice to see you're as bubbly as ever."
"Please tell me you have a good reason for not seeking help immediately."
Her nerves caused her to press on Itachi's wound a little too hard. This time he flinched.
"Hey!" he warned.
"We were on our way to the Grass Country border to meet up with Sora-san when we received news about the Zombie Combo dying...for real. Itachi-san here insisted we head south and deal with the situation first."
"Those wards would talk the first chance they get and we were the only ones within the vicinity to deal with them. Dealing with a risk before it turns into a problem is always more effective than damage control." Itachi droned. He caught Shiori's wrists and narrowed his eyes at her before she could skewer him with another one of her fingers.
Kisame nodded in agreement, unaware of the little power-struggle between the couple. "You were right. One of the wards had actually started singing when I got there. No matter, that's been sorted now."
"And the Kawa-nins?" Itachi inquired.
"I had to take two down. They heard too much."
The partners nodded in agreement, pleased with how their mission went. They turned back to Shiori who had finished dressing the wound and was now putting the excess materials back in the first aid pouch.
"Great," she chirped icily. "Where were we...oh yes," she gave Itachi a pointed look. "Poison."
The Uchiha sighed, pressing the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. "Sora-san knows about the delay. She agreed to meet us at the northern border instead. It's only a two-hour trek from here."
"Then let's go and meet her," she replied. "Preferrably before you bleed to death."
Shiori volunteered to fill their canteens before the start of the journey. All the while she mumbled to herself, having a tirade about 'suicidal shinobi who have no sense of self-preservation whatsoever'. As Kisame helped his partner up to his feet, he whispered to him.
"Is it me or has Hidan's annoying tone rubbed on her?"
Itachi didn't reply. He hoped to Kami it will wear off soon.
Writer's Notes:
First of all my apologies. I have been terrible at updating this piece. I was stuck for a long time tbh. It was like my brain came to a grinding halt and for the longest time I couldn't connect the events together. It sucked. Now this is me trying to pick up where we left off, desperately taking the characters from one milestone to another.
Damage Control is the first part of what had been a super long chapter which came out of nowhere months after the dreaded writer's block stopped me from writing anything. Quality-wise I'd let you guys decide. It would mean much if you let me know about what you have to say in the reviews.
That being said, hope you enjoyed this chapter.
Trivia: Everything clicked into place after listening to Amber Run one lazy afternoon. The next chapter will be named after one of their more well-known songs.