Yes I know I totally missed releasing anything last weekend. Been sort of busy now that I'm back at school. But here's the latest chapter and I do hope you read and enjoy!
Akakuma’s mind seemed to lift from his body as Itachi’s eyes met his, spiriting the two of them away to an entirely new world. In this plane of existence, the sky was not blackened by night and dotted by stars as it was only seconds before, but rather painted a bloody red, and a deathly pale moon gleamed ominously over their heads. Akakuma was now standing face-to-face with the young shinobi, no more than five yards away, looking around with an expression of utter confusion, no doubt directed toward their current location. Not intelligent enough to conjure up a more logical approach to this strange turn of events, the beast began rushing madly towards the boy with his right fist poised to strike. Itachi quickly began focusing chakra into his pupils, willing for Akakuma to cease his attack. Almost immediately, the monster was impaled by several massive stakes which suddenly appeared out of nowhere, rooting him to the floor in an instant.
Itachi smiled in light of this new turn of events, and another thought entered his mind which he immediately willed to be so. The entire terrain suddenly began transforming and before long, a deep valley ran between two distant mountains and he was in the presence of two Akakuma's, each hanging from a cross with their hands and feet tied. Seeing this, Itachi decided to get more creative and willed the ropes to disappear, replacing them with dark stakes which drew blood from the fresh wounds they produced. The howls of pain that ensued from the monsters' throats were sweet music to his ears, and he amplified the pain which their wounds brought them several times over. However, the fun was only just beginning.
Both crosses suddenly burst into flames and Akakuma shrieked fiercely as they began consuming his flesh. All the power that he had displayed in the real world failed him here, and his startling endurance was reduced to complete and utter vulnerability. Here, Itachi was supreme. In an instant, the flames ceased and Akakuma, now a pair of smoldering skeletons decorated with fragments of burnt flesh, heaved a sigh of relief, only for the inferno to return once more, this time blazing with such ferocity that they turned a searing white—all because Itachi willed it to do so.
It was torture of the worst possible sort which Itachi had planned next. After what seemed like thirty minutes in pure agony, the crosses vanished and there were now four Akakuma's, each with their limbs fixed between the spokes of a large wheel. And hulking figures, dressed in samurai armor and wielding a hammer, now stood beside them. The beast and his doppelgangers looked at them with confusion and terror in their eyes as they raised their mighty weapons and mashed them against their bodies, fixing their limbs into the wheel like a grotesque rope entangled in its spokes. The agony was indescribable for Akakuma, as was the pleasure which Itachi felt as he watched. The end result of this merciless assault was the complete shattering of every bone in Akakuma’s body; where one giant missed a femur, the other made up for it; where one spared a rib, the other crushed it to dust, and Akakuma cried out in writhing agony at the extreme pain of it all.
Things only got worse from there. What followed was the complete removal of the Red Devil’s skin; a very slow and excruciating process carried out by the ruthless beaks of a hundred crows, one which Itachi repeated a hundred times on a hundred Akakuma’s, all to ensure that the pain was amplified to its greatest extent. There was the sensation of drowning which lasted for about two hours, there was the bath in a vat of boiling oil as piranhas tore at his flesh with agonizing slowness, so many torturous designs one normally wouldn’t believe had sprung from the mind of a mere twelve year-old boy. In all, this terrible experience lasted for about twelve hours, afterwhich Akakuma—the untamed monster of Aoran, whose arm was bathed in the blood of mighty shinobi, whose very glare was a death warrant, whose thunderous cry announced pure genocide—was reduced to a trembling figure who was depleted of all strength, and so full of fear for Itachi that he dared not raise his head to look at the boy’s face. When this subjugation was accomplished, the two exited this strange world, returning to the riverside in the Aoran forest, where they were still standing with their eyes locked. Hardly a second had passed by in reality, but Akakuma had just experienced an eternity's worth of pain in the world of illusions.
Both combatants fell to the ground; Itachi to his knees, clasping his left eye and groaning in pain, and Akakuma on his face, completely unable to move.
“Are you alright Itachi?!” Hoji called out as he rushed forward in spite of his fatigue, his sense of duty as a medical-nin infusing him with a newfound strength as he crouched down to examine his comrade.
“I’m…fine.” the Uchiha groaned, still clasping his eye and gritting his teeth in evident pain, despite the lack of any visible wounds.
“You sure don’t look fine.” The medical-nin replied, wiping a bead of sweat from his brow. “Here, let me see that eye of yours.”
Itachi’s hand remained pressed firmly over the left side of his face, the fingers of his right hand balled into a fist as he tried to resist the throbbing pain. He didn’t expect that the genjutsu would put this much strain on his eye. An impatient Hoji motioned to remove the hand which shielded the eye from view, but Itachi was far too quick for him, rising to his feet suddenly and leaping a small distance away.
“Leave it. …Akakuma…” the Uchiha heaved through clenched teeth.
At that point, Hoji remembered that their opponent was still on the battlefield, and quickly turned his gaze towards the collapsed brute. There was question as to whether or not he was still alive; the slight rise and fall of his torso made it clear that he was breathing, and the bobbing of his jaw and the weak glimmer in his eyes showed that he was still conscious. But, how he had been so utterly and instantly incapacitated still remained a mystery to Hoji.
By this time, the rest of the team had rejoined Itachi and the medical-nin, Sato crouching on the other side of the young Uchiha, while Shiko, Tenzo, and Himura went to check on Akakuma. The Angel of Death tightened his grip on the hilt of his katana as he neared the fallen monster, a wary frown creasing the space between his dark eyebrows. Tenzo and Shiko also approached with shrewd caution.
“His chakra is extremely weakened.” explained Sato as he noticed the team captain gently placing his hand against the Akakuma’s back. It was strange for them to see the beast so docile.
“So, he’s under Itachi’s genjutsu?” asked Shiko.
“Actually, he isn’t. I saw Itachi’s chakra activate a genjutsu, but the chakra vanished almost immediately afterwards. At first, I thought Akakuma broke the illusion, but then he collapsed, so I’m not sure why the genjutsu ended so quickly.”
Shiko listened to this report without taking his eyes off the monster’s still form. The crease between his eyebrows showed that his mind was at work, trying to come up with a possible explanation, and a few seconds later, it vanished and his eyebrows shot upwards, his eyes wide with surprise. He now realized what just happened to Akakuma, and he found it almost unbelievable.
“Maybe the genjutsu wasn’t broken.” he muttered, his voice barely audible. “Maybe it just achieved its fullest effect within that mere instant. An instantaneous illusion, too fast and too powerful for even Akakuma to break.”
At this point, he turned his gaze to Itachi, who was still gripping the left side of his face, fighting the pain that burned in his eye.
“It was so powerful that it caused pain to the eye of the caster. A genjutsu that sprouted from only his left eye.”
“But that’s impossible.” protested Sato. “A genjutsu that lasts for one second?”
“The Sharingan is a mysterious dōjutsu, isn’t it, Itachi?” returned Shiko, still staring at Itachi with a look of all-knowing.
Itachi stared back with his visible eye, which gleamed with shock and fear, like a child who had just been caught stealing from the cookie jar, or a murderer standing over his victim soaked in blood. The looks they exchanged as they locked eyes disclosed the following facts; that Itachi had a secret, that Shiko knew this secret, that Itachi knew that Shiko knew this secret, and that this fact unnerved the boy immensely. This revelation only added to the pain in his eye, eventually proving too much of a strain on the young boy’s mind until finally, he fell unconscious into Hoji’s arms.
Itachi’s eyes opened, squinting a moment later as bright light entered through his parted lids, light which streamed in from between the parted curtains of the window next to him. Itachi recognized this window; it was the same one from which he watched Himura’s secret training only days ago. Realizing that he was now back at the inn, the Uchiha propped himself up on his bed. He saw that he was still wearing the same clothes which he donned during the battle with Akakuma, save for his flak jacket, arm guards, sandals and weapons. Itachi took a deep breath and exhaled loudly. The fact that he could still breathe at all meant that Akakuma never returned to his feet, like he always did before, which meant that his genjutsu must have taken care of the monster.
He raised his left hand to his eye unconsciously as the illusion he had cast came to mind. There was no pain anymore—in fact, he felt perfectly fine. The next thing that came to his mind was the shrewd and piercing look in Shiko’s eyes, the last thing he saw before he fainted. Did he somehow know exactly what Itachi had done? That he had used the Mangekyō Sharingan? But that was impossible, Itachi reasoned. Such knowledge was kept strictly within the Uchiha clan, and there was no way a common outsider could know of it—but then again, there was nothing common or ordinary about his team captain. This much he had learned over the past few days. Itachi ran both hands through his grey-black hair, noticing that the string which bound his tresses into a low ponytail was absent, letting his hair fall freely. His eyes widening slightly, he quickly pulled the comforter off his body and planted both feet firmly on the ground, which was cold to the touch. He had to get that string back, he thought. It was a gift from Mitsuki.
He began to walk towards the front door, flexing his arms and stretching his body as he went, trying to ascertain if any part of his body was still in pain. To his satisfaction, there was none, and he decided to go hunt for some breakfast—or lunch, depending on what time it was—before beginning the hunt for his missing string. As soon as his palm touched the brass knob, however, the door creaked open slightly. The Uchiha took a step back as it opened, revealing none other than Hoji, framed in the doorway with a whimsical combination of shock and elation on his face. He didn’t remain in the doorway for long, rushing towards Itachi and draping his right arm over the boy’s shoulders.
“Itachi, you’re finally awake!! I was just coming to check on you again!” he declared, loud enough for everyone in the inn to hear. “You had us worried back there, buddy! Hey, Sato! Himura! Itachi’s up!”
About three seconds later, one of the doors down the hall swung open and Himura emerged from it, followed shortly by Sato and Tenzo from another room. All three shinobi smiled warmly as they entered the room—truthfully, Itachi was rather surprised that they were actually worried about him. Hoji was an understandable case—worrying was his second nature after happy-go-lucky—but the rest of the team, as well? Immediately, his head began filling with false answers with which he could reply to the barrage of questions which were bound to come his way. Hoji began this interrogation, as Itachi knew he would.
“So what happened, Itachi? You just collapsed after using that genjutsu.”
The Uchiha cleared his throat before he began.
“I just overused my Sharingan. I put too much strength into that final genjutsu to ensure it worked and the strain was too much on my eyes. ...It happens sometimes.”
“Oh, cool. So, it’s nothing serious?” the medical-nin inquired.
“Some serious pain for a while is all. But beyond that, nothing.” Itachi replied in a warm tone, flashing a reassuring smile in order to put an end to the questions.
“You’re sure about that?” Hoji pressed on, to Itachi’s minor annoyance.
“Completely.” The Uchiha replied firmly before quickly changing the subject. “So, Akakuma went down?”
“Like a corpse.” answered Himura. “And more importantly, he stayed down. I made sure of it with my sword. Took his head clean off after you dropped him, and Shiko sealed away the remains.”
Itachi twitched imperceptibly at the mention of their team leader’s name. “Where is the captain, by the way?”
“We don’t know.” replied Tenzo. “Shiko-san said he’d be tying up some loose ends before we go back to Konoha.”
Loose ends, Itachi thought, wondering for a moment if they had anything to do with him.
“So, we’re heading back now?”
“Everyone’s ready. It’s just you we’ve been waiting for.” said Sato, frowning at Itachi as he usually did. “So hurry up and get ready.”
Itachi was only now noticing that they were all fully dressed, each donning the standard uniform of a chūnin; jackets, headbands, and all. Of course, there were some variations here and there, like the happuri which framed Tenzo's face, or the sword strapped to Himura's back, or the sleeves Sato had folded up to his elbows.
“Dude, be nice for a change. Itachi saved our lives back there.” scolded Hoji.
“Well, we saved his life first.” countered the surly Hyūga as he folded his burly arms. “If it wasn’t for our Titan—”
“Quiet, you.” a deep voice drawled, a cross between a yawn and a sigh.
There was only one person they knew who could manage to sound worn out every single time he spoke. It was Shiko, who had just emerged from the staircase with silence befitting a true ninja. Adorned in the same uniform as the rest of the team—the only difference being his black shirt and lack of a forehead protector—his hands were shoved in his pockets and his shoulders were slumped, hardly a glimmer of life in his dull, half-opened eyes. With the way he dragged his feet as he walked towards them, it wouldn’t come as much of a shock to any of them if he just keeled over and passed out right then and there. He didn’t, though.
“Quit talking so loud. There are other guests here, you know.” the captain said, a little more firmness in his tone than usual, as his sunken grey eyes drifted towards Itachi. “I see you’re up. Get packed. We leave in ten minutes.”
The young boy gazed back with as much indifference as he could muster, although something told him that Shiko knew exactly how much his mere presence was disturbing him.
“Yes, sir.” Itachi replied evenly, turning around and reentering his room in order to start getting ready. He hadn’t taken more than two steps in before stopping again, frozen by Shiko’s next statement.
“How’s your new eye suiting you?”
Itachi’s eyes widened in shock. There was no doubt about it now, he thought—Shiko somehow knew about the Mangekyō Sharingan—though he quickly reminded himself that the captain could merely be assuming things, so all he had to do was make sure that his reaction gave nothing away. A small burst of air eased slowly from Itachi’s lips before he looked up at Shiko with a confused expression, which Shiko countered with one of curiosity.
“New eye?” the boy asked as naïvely as he could manage. The subtle twinkle in his eyes informed Itachi that Shiko could see through his mask like it was glass.
“Oh, sorry,” responded the Captain with an almost airheaded tone, placing the tip of his index and middle fingers on his forehead, “Guess I’m still half-asleep. I meant to ask how is your LEFT eye.”
Itachi wasn’t deceived. Then again, Shiko wasn’t really trying to deceive him, anyways; he was simply making it clear that he knew what Itachi knew. Shiko Nara was definitely not one to be underestimated when it came to such matters—it seemed that he wasn't called the Black Scorpion of the ANBU for nothing. Although Itachi was still uncertain of whether to consider him friend or foe, he knew one thing for sure: he was someone worth keeping an eye on. His sunken eyes and constant look of exhaustion were a mask thicker than the porcelain ones donned by members of the ANBU, and behind this languid and apathetic shell existed one of the most dangerous shinobi Itachi had ever known.
“My left eye is fine. Thank you for asking.”
To Be Continued.
Akakuma’s mind seemed to lift from his body as Itachi’s eyes met his, spiriting the two of them away to an entirely new world. In this plane of existence, the sky was not blackened by night and dotted by stars as it was only seconds before, but rather painted a bloody red, and a deathly pale moon gleamed ominously over their heads. Akakuma was now standing face-to-face with the young shinobi, no more than five yards away, looking around with an expression of utter confusion, no doubt directed toward their current location. Not intelligent enough to conjure up a more logical approach to this strange turn of events, the beast began rushing madly towards the boy with his right fist poised to strike. Itachi quickly began focusing chakra into his pupils, willing for Akakuma to cease his attack. Almost immediately, the monster was impaled by several massive stakes which suddenly appeared out of nowhere, rooting him to the floor in an instant.
Itachi smiled in light of this new turn of events, and another thought entered his mind which he immediately willed to be so. The entire terrain suddenly began transforming and before long, a deep valley ran between two distant mountains and he was in the presence of two Akakuma's, each hanging from a cross with their hands and feet tied. Seeing this, Itachi decided to get more creative and willed the ropes to disappear, replacing them with dark stakes which drew blood from the fresh wounds they produced. The howls of pain that ensued from the monsters' throats were sweet music to his ears, and he amplified the pain which their wounds brought them several times over. However, the fun was only just beginning.
Both crosses suddenly burst into flames and Akakuma shrieked fiercely as they began consuming his flesh. All the power that he had displayed in the real world failed him here, and his startling endurance was reduced to complete and utter vulnerability. Here, Itachi was supreme. In an instant, the flames ceased and Akakuma, now a pair of smoldering skeletons decorated with fragments of burnt flesh, heaved a sigh of relief, only for the inferno to return once more, this time blazing with such ferocity that they turned a searing white—all because Itachi willed it to do so.
It was torture of the worst possible sort which Itachi had planned next. After what seemed like thirty minutes in pure agony, the crosses vanished and there were now four Akakuma's, each with their limbs fixed between the spokes of a large wheel. And hulking figures, dressed in samurai armor and wielding a hammer, now stood beside them. The beast and his doppelgangers looked at them with confusion and terror in their eyes as they raised their mighty weapons and mashed them against their bodies, fixing their limbs into the wheel like a grotesque rope entangled in its spokes. The agony was indescribable for Akakuma, as was the pleasure which Itachi felt as he watched. The end result of this merciless assault was the complete shattering of every bone in Akakuma’s body; where one giant missed a femur, the other made up for it; where one spared a rib, the other crushed it to dust, and Akakuma cried out in writhing agony at the extreme pain of it all.
Things only got worse from there. What followed was the complete removal of the Red Devil’s skin; a very slow and excruciating process carried out by the ruthless beaks of a hundred crows, one which Itachi repeated a hundred times on a hundred Akakuma’s, all to ensure that the pain was amplified to its greatest extent. There was the sensation of drowning which lasted for about two hours, there was the bath in a vat of boiling oil as piranhas tore at his flesh with agonizing slowness, so many torturous designs one normally wouldn’t believe had sprung from the mind of a mere twelve year-old boy. In all, this terrible experience lasted for about twelve hours, afterwhich Akakuma—the untamed monster of Aoran, whose arm was bathed in the blood of mighty shinobi, whose very glare was a death warrant, whose thunderous cry announced pure genocide—was reduced to a trembling figure who was depleted of all strength, and so full of fear for Itachi that he dared not raise his head to look at the boy’s face. When this subjugation was accomplished, the two exited this strange world, returning to the riverside in the Aoran forest, where they were still standing with their eyes locked. Hardly a second had passed by in reality, but Akakuma had just experienced an eternity's worth of pain in the world of illusions.
Both combatants fell to the ground; Itachi to his knees, clasping his left eye and groaning in pain, and Akakuma on his face, completely unable to move.
“Are you alright Itachi?!” Hoji called out as he rushed forward in spite of his fatigue, his sense of duty as a medical-nin infusing him with a newfound strength as he crouched down to examine his comrade.
“I’m…fine.” the Uchiha groaned, still clasping his eye and gritting his teeth in evident pain, despite the lack of any visible wounds.
“You sure don’t look fine.” The medical-nin replied, wiping a bead of sweat from his brow. “Here, let me see that eye of yours.”
Itachi’s hand remained pressed firmly over the left side of his face, the fingers of his right hand balled into a fist as he tried to resist the throbbing pain. He didn’t expect that the genjutsu would put this much strain on his eye. An impatient Hoji motioned to remove the hand which shielded the eye from view, but Itachi was far too quick for him, rising to his feet suddenly and leaping a small distance away.
“Leave it. …Akakuma…” the Uchiha heaved through clenched teeth.
At that point, Hoji remembered that their opponent was still on the battlefield, and quickly turned his gaze towards the collapsed brute. There was question as to whether or not he was still alive; the slight rise and fall of his torso made it clear that he was breathing, and the bobbing of his jaw and the weak glimmer in his eyes showed that he was still conscious. But, how he had been so utterly and instantly incapacitated still remained a mystery to Hoji.
By this time, the rest of the team had rejoined Itachi and the medical-nin, Sato crouching on the other side of the young Uchiha, while Shiko, Tenzo, and Himura went to check on Akakuma. The Angel of Death tightened his grip on the hilt of his katana as he neared the fallen monster, a wary frown creasing the space between his dark eyebrows. Tenzo and Shiko also approached with shrewd caution.
“His chakra is extremely weakened.” explained Sato as he noticed the team captain gently placing his hand against the Akakuma’s back. It was strange for them to see the beast so docile.
“So, he’s under Itachi’s genjutsu?” asked Shiko.
“Actually, he isn’t. I saw Itachi’s chakra activate a genjutsu, but the chakra vanished almost immediately afterwards. At first, I thought Akakuma broke the illusion, but then he collapsed, so I’m not sure why the genjutsu ended so quickly.”
Shiko listened to this report without taking his eyes off the monster’s still form. The crease between his eyebrows showed that his mind was at work, trying to come up with a possible explanation, and a few seconds later, it vanished and his eyebrows shot upwards, his eyes wide with surprise. He now realized what just happened to Akakuma, and he found it almost unbelievable.
“Maybe the genjutsu wasn’t broken.” he muttered, his voice barely audible. “Maybe it just achieved its fullest effect within that mere instant. An instantaneous illusion, too fast and too powerful for even Akakuma to break.”
At this point, he turned his gaze to Itachi, who was still gripping the left side of his face, fighting the pain that burned in his eye.
“It was so powerful that it caused pain to the eye of the caster. A genjutsu that sprouted from only his left eye.”
“But that’s impossible.” protested Sato. “A genjutsu that lasts for one second?”
“The Sharingan is a mysterious dōjutsu, isn’t it, Itachi?” returned Shiko, still staring at Itachi with a look of all-knowing.
Itachi stared back with his visible eye, which gleamed with shock and fear, like a child who had just been caught stealing from the cookie jar, or a murderer standing over his victim soaked in blood. The looks they exchanged as they locked eyes disclosed the following facts; that Itachi had a secret, that Shiko knew this secret, that Itachi knew that Shiko knew this secret, and that this fact unnerved the boy immensely. This revelation only added to the pain in his eye, eventually proving too much of a strain on the young boy’s mind until finally, he fell unconscious into Hoji’s arms.
00000
Itachi’s eyes opened, squinting a moment later as bright light entered through his parted lids, light which streamed in from between the parted curtains of the window next to him. Itachi recognized this window; it was the same one from which he watched Himura’s secret training only days ago. Realizing that he was now back at the inn, the Uchiha propped himself up on his bed. He saw that he was still wearing the same clothes which he donned during the battle with Akakuma, save for his flak jacket, arm guards, sandals and weapons. Itachi took a deep breath and exhaled loudly. The fact that he could still breathe at all meant that Akakuma never returned to his feet, like he always did before, which meant that his genjutsu must have taken care of the monster.
He raised his left hand to his eye unconsciously as the illusion he had cast came to mind. There was no pain anymore—in fact, he felt perfectly fine. The next thing that came to his mind was the shrewd and piercing look in Shiko’s eyes, the last thing he saw before he fainted. Did he somehow know exactly what Itachi had done? That he had used the Mangekyō Sharingan? But that was impossible, Itachi reasoned. Such knowledge was kept strictly within the Uchiha clan, and there was no way a common outsider could know of it—but then again, there was nothing common or ordinary about his team captain. This much he had learned over the past few days. Itachi ran both hands through his grey-black hair, noticing that the string which bound his tresses into a low ponytail was absent, letting his hair fall freely. His eyes widening slightly, he quickly pulled the comforter off his body and planted both feet firmly on the ground, which was cold to the touch. He had to get that string back, he thought. It was a gift from Mitsuki.
He began to walk towards the front door, flexing his arms and stretching his body as he went, trying to ascertain if any part of his body was still in pain. To his satisfaction, there was none, and he decided to go hunt for some breakfast—or lunch, depending on what time it was—before beginning the hunt for his missing string. As soon as his palm touched the brass knob, however, the door creaked open slightly. The Uchiha took a step back as it opened, revealing none other than Hoji, framed in the doorway with a whimsical combination of shock and elation on his face. He didn’t remain in the doorway for long, rushing towards Itachi and draping his right arm over the boy’s shoulders.
“Itachi, you’re finally awake!! I was just coming to check on you again!” he declared, loud enough for everyone in the inn to hear. “You had us worried back there, buddy! Hey, Sato! Himura! Itachi’s up!”
About three seconds later, one of the doors down the hall swung open and Himura emerged from it, followed shortly by Sato and Tenzo from another room. All three shinobi smiled warmly as they entered the room—truthfully, Itachi was rather surprised that they were actually worried about him. Hoji was an understandable case—worrying was his second nature after happy-go-lucky—but the rest of the team, as well? Immediately, his head began filling with false answers with which he could reply to the barrage of questions which were bound to come his way. Hoji began this interrogation, as Itachi knew he would.
“So what happened, Itachi? You just collapsed after using that genjutsu.”
The Uchiha cleared his throat before he began.
“I just overused my Sharingan. I put too much strength into that final genjutsu to ensure it worked and the strain was too much on my eyes. ...It happens sometimes.”
“Oh, cool. So, it’s nothing serious?” the medical-nin inquired.
“Some serious pain for a while is all. But beyond that, nothing.” Itachi replied in a warm tone, flashing a reassuring smile in order to put an end to the questions.
“You’re sure about that?” Hoji pressed on, to Itachi’s minor annoyance.
“Completely.” The Uchiha replied firmly before quickly changing the subject. “So, Akakuma went down?”
“Like a corpse.” answered Himura. “And more importantly, he stayed down. I made sure of it with my sword. Took his head clean off after you dropped him, and Shiko sealed away the remains.”
Itachi twitched imperceptibly at the mention of their team leader’s name. “Where is the captain, by the way?”
“We don’t know.” replied Tenzo. “Shiko-san said he’d be tying up some loose ends before we go back to Konoha.”
Loose ends, Itachi thought, wondering for a moment if they had anything to do with him.
“So, we’re heading back now?”
“Everyone’s ready. It’s just you we’ve been waiting for.” said Sato, frowning at Itachi as he usually did. “So hurry up and get ready.”
Itachi was only now noticing that they were all fully dressed, each donning the standard uniform of a chūnin; jackets, headbands, and all. Of course, there were some variations here and there, like the happuri which framed Tenzo's face, or the sword strapped to Himura's back, or the sleeves Sato had folded up to his elbows.
“Dude, be nice for a change. Itachi saved our lives back there.” scolded Hoji.
“Well, we saved his life first.” countered the surly Hyūga as he folded his burly arms. “If it wasn’t for our Titan—”
“Quiet, you.” a deep voice drawled, a cross between a yawn and a sigh.
There was only one person they knew who could manage to sound worn out every single time he spoke. It was Shiko, who had just emerged from the staircase with silence befitting a true ninja. Adorned in the same uniform as the rest of the team—the only difference being his black shirt and lack of a forehead protector—his hands were shoved in his pockets and his shoulders were slumped, hardly a glimmer of life in his dull, half-opened eyes. With the way he dragged his feet as he walked towards them, it wouldn’t come as much of a shock to any of them if he just keeled over and passed out right then and there. He didn’t, though.
“Quit talking so loud. There are other guests here, you know.” the captain said, a little more firmness in his tone than usual, as his sunken grey eyes drifted towards Itachi. “I see you’re up. Get packed. We leave in ten minutes.”
The young boy gazed back with as much indifference as he could muster, although something told him that Shiko knew exactly how much his mere presence was disturbing him.
“Yes, sir.” Itachi replied evenly, turning around and reentering his room in order to start getting ready. He hadn’t taken more than two steps in before stopping again, frozen by Shiko’s next statement.
“How’s your new eye suiting you?”
Itachi’s eyes widened in shock. There was no doubt about it now, he thought—Shiko somehow knew about the Mangekyō Sharingan—though he quickly reminded himself that the captain could merely be assuming things, so all he had to do was make sure that his reaction gave nothing away. A small burst of air eased slowly from Itachi’s lips before he looked up at Shiko with a confused expression, which Shiko countered with one of curiosity.
“New eye?” the boy asked as naïvely as he could manage. The subtle twinkle in his eyes informed Itachi that Shiko could see through his mask like it was glass.
“Oh, sorry,” responded the Captain with an almost airheaded tone, placing the tip of his index and middle fingers on his forehead, “Guess I’m still half-asleep. I meant to ask how is your LEFT eye.”
Itachi wasn’t deceived. Then again, Shiko wasn’t really trying to deceive him, anyways; he was simply making it clear that he knew what Itachi knew. Shiko Nara was definitely not one to be underestimated when it came to such matters—it seemed that he wasn't called the Black Scorpion of the ANBU for nothing. Although Itachi was still uncertain of whether to consider him friend or foe, he knew one thing for sure: he was someone worth keeping an eye on. His sunken eyes and constant look of exhaustion were a mask thicker than the porcelain ones donned by members of the ANBU, and behind this languid and apathetic shell existed one of the most dangerous shinobi Itachi had ever known.
“My left eye is fine. Thank you for asking.”
To Be Continued.
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Glad you enjoyed this chap. Will get to yours as soon as I can!
