(Edited 08/21/2020)
Edited: 8/18/2018
IMPORTNT AUTHORS NOTE AT THE END.
Deep into that darkness peering,
long I stood there,
wondering,
fearing,
doubting,
dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.
~Edgar Allan Poe
Chapter 5: A Turning Point.
The sun shone brightly on Konoha one particularly warm summer afternoon. It had been a year since 'the awakening' and my new life slipped seamlessly into something resembling a schedule.
When Itachi wasn't training with his father we were allowed to spend time together: which wasn't that often. Considering his father was a damn slave driver, my poor friend was stuck getting the shit beat out of him. I took what I could get.
With most of my time spent with the heir, I found that I genuinely enjoyed his presence in my new life. He was a great listener and, surprisingly, an even better friend. Sure, in the anime they hinted his potential to be a good friend as was shown with Shark-Guy (what was his name again?) but that ended in betrayal, so it doesn't count.
I couldn't even try to imagine Itachi ever betraying me.
Attempt to kill me? Sure—He was most likely going to kill his entire Clan no matter if I tried change things. So his and my eventual clash was bound to happen.
Outright take the trust I've put in him and throw it back in my face? Not even close.
When given the opportunity, Itachi had shown extreme amounts of loyalty and protectiveness that bordered on possessive. It was cute, really. Especially considering he was younger than I was.
At first, I found myself doubting if he even felt remotely the same as I did toward him. Then I found out the Uchiha ringleader of the D-bag squad, the one who had bullied me, was put into the hospital with career destroying injuries. It was terrifying, if I were being completely honest with myself (which I never was).
Any doubt I had accumulated vanished. How could I not put all of my trust into him after him outright choosing my feelings over that of his fellow Clan?
Somehow, I'd been given the biggest blessing in this world in the shape of a black hair, black-eyed pretty boy who looked at me as if I were something he cherished.
In turn, I did the same. I held dear every moment we spent together, acting like children.
In such a short span, Itachi had successfully wiggled himself into my tiny heart-space and refused to budge. Not that I would allow him to go in the first place.
I loved fiercely and unflinchingly. He could slit my throat and I would give him a thumbs up on his clean cut.
Even when we got into arguments, I knew we would be fine at the end of the day. Or week, depending on how bad it was. The 'fights' we had were mostly me screaming profanities and him calmly stating things and telling me to watch my language.
There were a few times I'd managed to get under his skin enough he yelled back, which always ended in me claiming how I totally won, no matter how sound his logic was in said screaming match. Any way I could get him to act more like a human instead of a stuffy Uchiha was always considered a win.
Things unrelated to my social life, Kushina began teaching me fuinjutsu—also known as sealing techniques. Obviously, she started with the basics. Uneven on even was bad, blah, blah, blah. It all seemed like fancy artwork in my eyes, and oddly enough, the squiggles made sense.
Most of the 'training' she made me do was practice writing in strange positions with both of my hands. Apparently, a seal master must be able to create their seals in any condition. Everything else was writing practice in my eyes. And I needed it.
Having smaller hands and using a brush was a fight in itself.
Minato himself began teaching me fighting stances from his Clan and how to throw handle his specialized kunai. He'd also tossed me a wooden stick in the shape of a sword and insisted I find a way to take him down. For weeks, I hadn't been able to even touch him. It was easy to become frustrated.
After millions of attempts, he finally taught me how to use my small stature to my advantage and gave me actual stances to learn for the art. Since him and I were prone to play Save the Princess, something my body remembered; the sword easily became my favorite.
On my own time I ran. I ran so much that walking at times felt weird and slow. Once, I asked Minato if I could get weights so I could move even faster, but he shot down the idea. He didn't think I should begin such intense training until I was a little older and able to handle the strain.
I, of course, agreed.
…To his face.
When I ran out on my own, I would run in my favorite spot—a long stream secluded by a huge cliff-side—I'd carry the biggest rock I could handle and run back and forth.
It was therapeutic. There it was always quiet, sans the cawing of crows and the sound of the trickling stream. It was place where I didn't have to put up a wall between my true self and the people around me. It was also a more healthy way of coping that lying in bed or talking to my reflection.
Many days were spent working myself into a sweaty mess, leaving myself deliciously spent and empty of my most hidden thoughts.
"Pay attention." Kushina scolded across from me. We were beginning another session of training, this time outside of the house. Oddly enough there wasn't any ink or parchment in the vicinity.
"Sorry Kaa-chan. I just don't get why we're outside." I replied, gesturing to our surroundings.
The redhead smiled, a twinkle in her eyes. "That's because we aren't practicing sealing."
That was new. I scrunched my nose, "Then what are we doing?" Gods I hoped she wasn't going to teach me about flowers.
Plucking a nearby leaf from a bush, Kushina held it up for me to see as if it would explain everything. I gave her an unimpressed stare.
She giggled, putting the leaf on her forehead. When she let it go, it stayed in place. "Today I'm going to teach you about chakra." She beamed.
"Cool!" I exclaimed, leaning forward to poke the leaf. It didn't budge.
Bringing her hand back up, she took the foliage from her forehead and handed it to me. It tingled slightly between my fingers.
As Kushina explained chakra to me, something I already knew of thanks to the knowledge of the anime, I thought about Naruto. The time of his conception was arriving faster than expected.
How was I going to talk my parents into taking more precautions during his birth? I couldn't outright tell them about the dangers to come.
"Now," mom brought me from my thoughts with a poke to the nose, "You are an Uzumaki. That means you will have a bit more trouble when it comes to chakra since we tend to have a bit more than usual. Thankfully, you have the best teacher ever to train you how to work around that, 'ttebane!."
My brows drew together. Naruto had problems with using too much or too little chakra in the anime, but I had thought it was because he had the nine-tails inside of him. Jinjuriki had immense amounts of chakra, after all.
No wonder he struggled so hard.
Kushina continued, pointing to the leaf between my fingers. "First you will learn to stick the leaf to your forehead. Direct all of your chakra to it."
Taking a deep breath, I did as instructed. A few minutes passed, but eventually my chakra began to listen. It was thick, like molasses, and fought against me the entire time. Sweat trickled down my face with all of the effort it took to control the sludge-like chakra.
After an hour, the leaf stayed in place. I smiled widely at my mom, pointing to my success, "Look! I did it!"
She chuckled, "You did great, Wildfire. The first try is always the hardest, but soon it will be like second nature."
Apparently, that wasn't the end of the lesson. In order to move to the next stage of learning, I would have to be able to stick the leaf instantly.
When the sun began setting, Kushina put an end to training for the day.
That night I went to bed, stomach full and hope in my heart. Maybe being a ninja wouldn't be so hard, after all.
I shifted my eyes between the three ninja sitting at the coffee table, face impassive and devoid of emotion. Across from me, Obito wiggled uncomfortably in his seat, sweating. We were waiting for him to make a decision.
Fold, call or make a new bet.
Rin—out three hands ago—played as dealer.
It was a rather chilly out today, it being early September. Too cold for me to even consider going outside, especially when Mom and Papa were out on some mission for the day and hired (read: forced) team Minato to babysit me. And since Itachi was out doing something with Fugaku outside of the village, I really had nothing better to do.
I missed my best friend. He was going to be gone for an entire month. That was like, a year to someone my age! My only company as of now were the three stooges sitting around the table with me, and my parents… when all of them had the time.
There were a few instances when I was left at home during the day by my lonesome. With nothing to do, I would think—then train to get my mind off thinking and busy myself.
It was a terrible time. Sometimes I contemplated putting my head through a wall from the boredom and darkness that threatened to surrounded me.
I was going stir-crazy like some sort of stressed out Sim. If only there were some higher power controlling me that I could yell and shake my fist toward.
Obito suddenly slammed his hand on the table with a determined look on his face, making me jump in my seat. "ALL IN!"
…Ooo bby, nooo. I sent him a pitying look, doing my best not to peek at my own cards. There was no way I was going to lose to a bunch of children. I had too many years of past-life experience behind my belt to be that pathetic.
No, I couldn't hit a bullseye, but I sure as hell knew my way around a deck of cards. Not that they would know that.
I fought of the urge to laugh.
The dark haired boy pushed his meager amount of chips into the center, glancing at our "winning pot"—a pile consisting of candy and a sum of money. Kakashi was too cool to bet candy, so he had put in a D-rank missions worth of cash in.
I tapped my fingers against the table, giving said silver-haired boy an appraising once-over. He looked back at me with bored, dark eyes. I immediately looked away, holding in the urge to point and scream.
Due to Obito thinking it as an unfair advantage, he forced Kakashi to take off his mask. Something that made me internally freak out for all of two minutes because WHAT.
The casual way he just took it off (why do I always end up sounding like a pedophile!?) had me gaping like a damn fish. In the anime, they made it seem like some big secret.
I wasn't sure if it was a true testament to how comfortable he must be with his team or how different his younger-self was compared to the adult I grew up watching… It's like he grew up backwards. He was quite the troll as team seven's sensei.
On the other hand, him not wanting to show his face when he's older could have been from shame. He did have his 'best friend's' eye in his socket and was condemned as a teammate killer.
I need to stop thinking of depressing things.
Whatever! His bare face didn't matter anymore. No, my problem was the fact his amount of chips was almost as big as mine.
Growing up as Jemma, her mom's favorite thing to do was to play cards. Be it your standard set or tarot, she always had a deck in her hand. She taught me everything I know and introduced me to the world of being overly competitive.
Board games, card games, video games; we played them all together.
So, imagine team eight's surprise when I had handed their asses to them in the first few rounds of poker. Part of me wished I had a camera… Oh wait…
Safe to say the kiddy-wheels were off.
My only demand was that there were no ninja-cheating. It went against their training, but they agreed easily since I'm a child who had no chance.
Blowing my bangs away from my forehead, I leaned forward and pushed all of chips to the center as Obito had not long before, face blank.
"All in…"
Kakashi's shoulders stiffened minisculely, his lip twitching, before he relaxing back into his normal calm. When he spoke, his voice was cool as a cucumber. "All in." he drawled, shrugging and pushing his remaining chips to the pot. Once done, he leaned his cheek against his propped up fist and sent me a lazy (smug) smile.
This battle wasn't between all of us anymore—it was Kakashi Vs. Akira and we both knew it. May the best bluffer win.
Rin gasped.
Obito looked ready to pass out.
Inside, I was grinning like the cat who caught the canary.
Kakashi flipped his cards to the center, displaying his high card of a King.
"Aw man! I thought you were bluffing!" Obito groaned, head falling to the table with a thump as he turned over his shitty hand. Poor boy always thought Kakashi was bluffing. The idiot.
Preening, the silver-haired ninja moved to take the pile of candy and money, a much too smug look on his un-masked face. I held up a hand, my two cards held delicately between my fingers.
"Ahem!" my obnoxious throat clearing did exactly as I intended, getting my Obito's attention. Finally able to drop the metaphoric mask, I allowed one side of my mouth to lift maliciously in a smirk. "Three of a kind."
"What!?" all three of them exclaimed at once, accentuated by Obito's loud barks of laughter.
"You lost to a toddler! Hahaha!"
There was a bright flash of light, along with a light click sound.
Three pairs of shocked eyes snapped my way. I'd have to wait a few days to fill up the rest of the film in order for dad to develop them, but the results would be priceless. Definitely worth almost losing to Kakashi.
"Did you just… take a picture of us?" Rin questioned with a raised brow. She looked highly amused for someone who I tried to light on fire every time we made eye-contact.
Kakashi's expression turned murderous, pulling his mask back into place. "Give me the camera."
Obito put his hand on his teammates shoulder. "Don't be such a sore loser, Bakashi." Said 'baka' flinched. I began to giggle uncontrollably. "It's not like she has any friends to show it to. Other than Itachi-kun."
My laughter stopped short as I pouted at him. "No fair. I could always make loads of copies, cut out you and Useless and sell the pictures to his fangirls." I glanced down at the camera in my hands, eyes sparkling with a sudden realization. "I'd be rich…"
Obito bopped me on the top of my head with a fist, looking wholly unamused. "Now, Akira. Making profit on someone else's secret, especially a fellow ninja, isn't right."
…Wow. What? That… That was… "That was very wise, Obito. Especially for being such an idiot."
"H-hey! Don't say that to your beloved big bro! I can be just as smart as Kakashi if I wanted to." he whined, fake tears streaming down his face.
Before, I would have hugged him close and told him how I knew just how smart he was. How I loved him and believed in him. Yet, ever since the day he blatantly chose Rin's feelings over mine, I had taken a step back emotionally from him.
It hurt me in ways I had never known possible in the days that passed after my bullying experience. The fact Rin hadn't even acted in my defense was worse. Even if I was being trained to become a ninja, it didn't make being bullied any less traumatic.
It was the first time I actually felt vulnerable in this body as its driver, and fucking emotionally stunned Kakashi helped me. Not my beloved "big brother."
Yes, he apologized (after Papa talked to them as a team. They came back looking as if they came back from a mission, not team training) but the damage was already done.
I could see his pain every time I called him by his name without 'nii-chan', but the still hurt part of my didn't give a shit.
He should have been there.
He should have cared when it mattered.
I turned to Kakashi with my best puppy-face on full-blast, ignoring Obito all together. His shoulders slumped from the corner of my eye, but I (-loved the way it made me feel) tried as hard as I could to not be effected.
After a short stare-down with the scarecrow, he let out a long, loud sigh. "You can keep one copy." I got up and shouted in joy. He called after me as I ran to my room to hide the camera—just in case he changes his mind. "If I find more than that, I'll burn them all!"
After hiding the camera in a ninja-proof safe place, I paused to look at my small collection of board games. An evil smile spread over my face.
Lets ruin families.
"How about we play Monopoly?"
.
.
.
"Aw man!" Obito pulled on his hair, looking both pissed off and depressed. "There's no way I could be out so quick!"
My foot shot out to kick him from under the table. It hit air considering I couldn't reach. Damn short legs. "You'd win if you would quit giving Rin all of your money!"
Whenever Rin was about to lose, the idiot would swoop in and give his money to her just so she would stay in the game this time. It was so annoying—and I was sure that wasn't allowed.
"Well then how about you quit taking it!" he growled out, pointing an accusing finger my way.
I'd bite it off if it were closer. That was how angry I was. "That would defeat the purpose of the game, you artichoke!"
"Calm down guys, it's just a game." Rin begged.
My ire immediately turned to the other female at the table who had spoken. I gave her my nastiest look. Before I could spit venom at her, Kakashi interrupted, sounding particular pissy, too. "You're acting like more of a child than Akira-chan."
Did… he just call me Akira-chan? The world was ending.
We were all going to die.
Hell was freezing over.
"Who are you?" I asked the imposter, eyes squinting into slits the way moms would when Papa said something strange.
He just gave me a look as if I were stupid.
Maybe I was.
"How about I bake some cookies for us to snack on?" Rin perked up, smiling.
Taking some unseen bait, Obito pushed Kakashi out of his seat beside me and put his foot on it, leaning toward me. "Aha! I bet I can make better cookies than you!"
Oh, you poor soul…
"You're on."
"Guys…"
.
.
.
My cookies were steaming their delicious, fresh scent into the air. They sat on a plate, imperfectly rounded and looking delicious. Beside them were… Whatever Obito had made. They looked mostly burnt.
And was that a scale?
The three teenagers took a bite of my cookies, instantaneous smiles lighting up Useless's face.
That was what I missed about baking. How happy it could make other people. Watching customers wiggle happily in their seats was the highlight of my day.
"Wow Akira-chan! Where did you learn to bake?" Rin gushed, cookie gone and hands on either side of her face.
Kakashi looked suspicious, but he wasn't spitting out the cookie, so I was fine with it. I knew he wasn't particularly fond of sweets. "Doesn't your father keep you away from the oven?"
I tossed my hair over my shoulder, beaming with pride, "I'm just a natural, I guess."
Obito hip-checked me out of his way, earning a squawk from me as I flailed to keep balance, and pushed his 'cookies' toward his teammates. "Okay, okay we get it. Now try mine!"
Interested, and glaring, I grabbed a cookie and took a quick bite out of it and— "Blah!" I tossed it far, far away from my person. I didn't want that thing anywhere near me.
"Mm!" Rin turned green and discreetly spit it out on a napkin.
Kakashi outright spit his out on the floor and turned to the Uchiha. "What the hell did you put in this? Are you trying to kill us?"
I stared at the area where the spit up abomination landed in horror. Part of me was waiting for it to stand up and scurry under the oven and reproduce like a cockroach. "Why does it taste fishy?"
"I thought sardine's would taste good in a cookie… They're good on their own…"
I knew I saw scales!
"Pffft" I couldn't help it—I laughed. My shoulders shook with the force of my mirth. Tears collected in the corners of my eyes. Rin joined in soon after, thought there was a brief moment where she tried holding it in. Eventually Obito breaks out in giggles, scratching behind his head with a blush on his cheeks.
Even Kakashi chuckled a bit as he crossed his arms.
I wiped a tear from my eye. "You're an idiot, Obi-Nii-chan."
A wide, sunshine grin lit up his face.
Life was good.
And then the happiness shattered, leaving jagged, open wounds.
Wounds that never fully healed.
I should have forgiven him when I had the chance.
The world felt gray even though all I could see for miles was a sea of black. A few people cried silently—citizens—while the rest just stood there, faces blank and spines rigid. I wanted to join them but knew tears would not bring back the dead. Nothing could.
Obito… He was gone. Of course, I knew the Uchiha was still alive but it wasn't him. No, the kind, gentle, bright, happy Obito did not exist anymore. Fate proved set in stone. I should have tried to make a change. How stupid could I have been to think my existence itself could made a difference?
Obito was Tobi now—controlled and crafted by none other than Madara himself.
Madara.
Just the thought of that man's name filled my small body with rage. If I ever came across that old fuck, I would tear his heart out and eat it—if I didn't piss myself first, that is. He was like the boogieman of this world, along with the tailed beasts.
I knew this would happen… I knew not to get too close.
Yet I did.
The Obito I grew to love was like a brother to me. He brought me candy, put Band-Aids on my skinned knees and always hugged me when I was sad. He rocked me back to sleep when I woke from nightmares that plagued my dreams.
If there were someone I would dearly miss, it would be him. His smile that always lit up every room he walked into. The fact I would never be able to see that smile again… It broke a piece of me.
I stood next to Kakashi, trying my best to ignore the gloominess that seeped from him like water. He and Rin were in different stages of grief, but I knew that Kakashi would be stuck in his stage for the rest of his life. Anger. Both at himself and Obito.
It was easier for Rin, I thought grumpily. She was one of his first friends, sure, but her feelings for him were empty. All of her heart and attention belonged to Kakashi.
I hated her, I realized. I hated her because she should have been stronger. Strong enough to not be taken by the enemy, to be able to protect her team. She didn't deserve the title of kunoichi. That lack of strength was going to tear any normal piece of Kakashi that was left away to die. He would kill her, and in ways, kill himself and Obito.
They wouldn't be the same.
The war was over, but wounds remained.
("I was convinced a greater power was against me. This second chance at life I had, and I couldn't do anything to protect my loved ones? It was nothing but a cosmic joke. Still. I did what I could for the living.")
I leaned forward and openly stared at Kakashi. His shoulders were slumped in defeat; hands stuffed fully in his pant pockets. His new eye, Obito's eye, was covered.
It made my heart ache. I wanted to tell him—wanted to shake him and scream that Obito's death was not his fault. It wouldn't help, though.
Yeah. Nothing would make him feel better. He lost a friend—a brother in arms.
I grit my teeth, tearing my eyes from Kakashi. It was easier to stare blankly at the memorial rock than to watch him become someone else.
Funerals are so stupid.
My dad was, for once, silent. Not even a single life lesson sprout from his mouth. He, like Kakashi, blamed himself, no doubt.
He probably thought of how he could have saved his student, had he been just a little faster. Ironic that the Yellow Flash of Konoha was not fast enough.
As if ending a war faster would have saved anyone.
My mind drifted to my best friend, Itachi. Come to find out his time out of the village with his dad, he had gone witnessed the terrors of war. He had killed, even. Though I was sure he would rather I think different, he wasn't exempt from feeling the weight of that knowledge.
A person's life was a heavy weight to carry. I would know. I was living in the body of the child I killed.
I had seen death myself. How a body's eyes glazed over, unseeing, and fogged over. If you looked closely enough, you could almost see their soul leaving their bodies. It was a haunting sight.
And perhaps I was a little disappointed that Itachi wasn't untouched by what he saw during the length of time he was gone. He always seemed so untouchable. I shouldn't put so much weight on his shoulders, though. He was a child. A real child, not a reincarnation—or whatever the fuck I was.
I have to do something. I thought, No. I need to do something.
Breaking formation from where I stood on my dad's right side, I shuffled a few steps to stand in front of Kakashi. It was as if he was looking through me.
My heart tightened. I set my jaw stubbornly. Fuck cannon.
With renewed determination—I had to make the last of my adopted family members better, even if just a little—I stood between Kakashi's feet and pushed my arms through his own. I hugged him tight, ignoring how he went rigid, and tried not to think of his shock.
I wondered if I was the only person to have ever consoled him this way. No one wanted to get too close to him with how moody he acted.
When he tried to move from the embrace, I stubbornly refused let go, sight going cloudy with unshed tears. It didn't matter to me that my arms couldn't wrap fully around his body, I just grabbed on harder; trying to force as much emotional strength as I possibly could into the contact.
Slowly but surely he began to relax. The urge to tell him how Obito wasn't dead, that he was still alive and able to be saved tore through my conscious relentlessly, but I forced it down, down, down: until it was tightly packed and shoved into a particularly crowded corner of my mind I kept caged and locked.
I didn't hug Rin, nor did I feel any amount of pity toward her. Honestly, I was more than a little mad at her. She could have made Obito happy. Instead, she just wanted to keep her head stiffly up Kakashi's asshole.
She was a corpse walking, anyway. I'd confront Itachi later when he wasn't surrounded by so many people.
I needed to hit something.
.
.
.
My arms pumped at my sides, breath coming out in pants as my lungs struggled to use air correctly. I could see my reflection in the stream of water to my right. To the left was a high cliff I had grown to find comfort in.
That cliff knew me better than anyone in this village. Just looking at it made me feel small, both in stature and insightfully.
The homemade weights I constructed out of rope and rocks were heavy on my shoulders but at this point, it didn't bother me anymore. Nothing really mattered anymore.
(Nothing can matter when you're empty.)
I pushed myself to run faster around a small bend, sandals crunching soundly over the gravel. Once out in the open, I noticed something and slowed my pace. I came to a stop, eyes narrowed at the odd shadow up ahead. It rapidly grew with every passing moment I stood there.
Nearby crows began cawing loudly, making the uneasiness in my stomach grow. Slowly, so slowly, I looked up. Something constricted in my body.
Someone was falling from the cliff. Had they jumped? Been pushed?
I was frozen.
That body looked strikingly familiar… Kind of like—
"Itachi!?"
I wasn't close enough. There was no way I would be able to save him, yet I ran anyway, stumbling over the rocky ground in my efforts. The make-shift weights fell heavily to the dirt.
The way I ran was desperate and sloppy. I tripped and fell to my knees, scraping the skin raw. It didn't matter. In the brink of terror, nothing mattered by the dropping body of my best friend and how I needed to save him. (He wAs gOinG tO dIE!) Legs shaking, I got back up.
How could he do this to me? How could he willingly fall from the sky like some sort of a fallen angel? Didn't he know there was a painful stop at the end!?
Then, like a calming balm, a memory flashed through my mind. My pace slowed to a jog and became less frantic.
I had almost forgotten. This happened in the anime. He would be fine and grow an attachment with crows, if I remembered correctly.
For just a moment, I felt extremely silly.
Itachi wouldn't just die so easily. He had a story to live out. Another crow cawed.
Just at that moment, as if reading my thoughts, Itachi stopped his decent with two kunai, plunging them deep into the steep face of the rocks. My heart was close to beating out of my damn throat and didn't slow until he was safe on the ground, surrounded by crows.
A crow made perch on Itachi's outstretched hand when I was close enough to hear. The ink black crow turned its head to me, cawed, and flew away.
Still, even with my future knowledge I felt anger boil inside of me. All of the lingering terror that mounted in my stomach unleashed itself and exploded.
Itachi barely had time to see me before I was tackling him to the ground.
"You bastard!" I shrieked.
I punched his face.
His head jerked to the side. If the moment were not so serious, I probably would have laughed at the look of pure shock on his face. Just for that, I hit him again. Again.
"You selfish," another punch, "little shit!" finally, he caught my hand and maneuvered himself out from under me, throwing me to the side. I fell back with an 'oof' but collected myself enough to stand back up and shake my fist at him threateningly.
"Do you understand how heartbroken your mother would be if she lost you!? Did you even stop to think of how your clan would feel? Your father?"
Itachi cast his eyes to the ground in shame, wiping a hand across his abused cheek. Ah, his nose was bleeding.
Tears flooded my eyes, blurring my sight shortly. I tore a piece of my shirt off and wiped his blood away, careful not to cause any more pain. My voice came out weak and shaky, "How I would feel?"
Once done cleaning him up, I launched myself at him, this time in a bruising hug.
My emotions were out of my hands. It shook me in a way I did not know I could feel to see Itachi almost die. How his body looked falling without any safety net. It didn't make sense. Sure, he was my best friend; but I knew one day that Sasuke would kill him. My body's response in hitting him didn't make sense, either. I had never been particularly violent in my old life. If anything I was a doormat to all of my friends. Too afraid of doing anything that would upset them and make them leave.
One thing was clear, though.
I did not want Itachi Uchiha to die. Not any time soon.
In the dark, emptiness of my heart, I vowed to destroy anyone who would try to harm him in any way. I vowed to become strong—stronger than those with malicious intentions toward any of my loved ones.
Surprisingly, I felt nothing at the next thought that came to my mind. That regardless of years in a world that taught murder to be a sin, I would have no problem in killing anyone who got in my way.
A flame began to grow. It was all consuming and fueled only by dark and hateful thoughts. It was the beginning of my decent into madness, and I welcomed it with open arms.
It was then I realized I had to do something. Even if the world was against me. Even if my efforts were to be in vain. Things needed to change.
END
A/N:
Now. Something IMPORTANT.
As an apology, I plan on writing a scene chosen by YOU.
Your choices are as follows:
(1) Future Akira (2) Minato's reaction (to Akira's bullying) (3) Jemma's past (4) READERS CHOICE (where you give an idea and I write it. If its cannon to the story or not is up to you.)
Also, as of now I have two completely different ways this story will branch out. With the death of her parents coming up, I was going to ask you, my readers, if you wanted Akira to become a jinchūriki or not. There are slight differences in both stories, but the endings are the same.
Tell me what you think: Jinchūriki!Akira or Normal!Akira?
Hope to hear from you guys. I'll be reading the reviews to see your answer/ ideas and reactions to this chapter.
Till next time!
~Siren
Next on Momentum: Aftermath, surprises, fun and devastation.