Perception

This story deviates from the manga at Ch. 353 and is set 3 years ahead of the current plotline.

Warnings: Rated M for violence, language and sexual situations/adult themes. Naruto and its characters are owned by Kishimoto.

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Perception by Cynchick
Chapter 3: Hindsight's 20/20


Somewhere in Grass country, three rogue shinobi walked down a dusty, old dirt road. The tallest one, the obvious leader judging by the aura of dark power surrounding him, walked in front. The others followed not too far behind, though the two kept a good distance from each other.


The vicious-looking one with the enormous sword was the first to break their long silence, his petulant voice disturbing the quiet late-summer day. “How much farther is this damn place, Sasuke?”


The tall man in front didn’t acknowledge the question, merely continued walking.


“See this dirt road? When it starts to become paved it means we’re getting close. Idiot.” The third ninja in the group, a tall masculine girl answered instead.


“No one asked for you input, Karin. Don’t be such a bitch.”


“Then don’t ask such stupid questions, Suigetsu.”


They said each other’s names like dirty words, as if insulting the other with mere acknowledgement. It was clear to anyone that these two were only companions because of the silent man in front of them.


Sasuke ignored them. They were idiots; constantly bickering back and forth about stupid things, often coming to blows. They would probably kill each other if he didn’t keep them both in check.


It was times like this he wished he had left Sound by himself after defeating Orochimaru. Karin and Suigetsu were useful at times, but their attitudes and behavior would test the patience of anyone. And Sasuke had a short temper.


The only member of Hebi that Sasuke could truthfully stand was Juugo, and he was gone. He had been insane beyond help thanks to Orochimaru’s experiments, and after traveling with him for eight months Sasuke was no longer able to control his homicidal madness. He attacked them in their sleep one night, nearly killing Karin. Sasuke had tried to rein him in like all the times before but he had finally and completely snapped, and Sasuke was forced to end his life. Perhaps it was mercy. Perhaps he had done the tortured boy a favor, but it still haunted him. He supposed he could never be the emotionless killer his brother was, and he no longer wanted to be. He hoped that wherever people like he and Juugo went after they died, he had finally found some peace.


Ironically, in all the years he’d been a shinobi, after all the years he’d spent at Sound, it was his first known kill. Orochimaru didn’t really count, since in Sasuke’s mind he was no longer human. He’d sat around the fire many nights talking quietly with the subdued side of Juugo, sharing experiences, and had felt a kinship with him. He had been a friend; the only friend he’d ever had aside from his old genin team.


Sasuke had thought a lot about Team Seven during the six years since he’d left Konoha; what they looked like, what kind of ninja they had become. Was Kakashi still outwardly cool but inwardly haunted? Was Naruto closer to achieving his dream of Hokage? Had Sakura finally found her own strength? He held many regrets about those days with his old team, and there were many things he would have done differently in retrospect. Especially concerning a certain pink-haired kunoichi. He had treated Sakura horribly, thinking that the only way to make her understand that he couldn’t be interested in her that way was to cruelly and mercilessly drill it into her. Though relentlessly annoying at times, she had done nothing but care for him and try to make his life a little happier. It took him living among the foulest and cruelest of ninja society to appreciate how nice it really was just to have somebody give a damn about him.


During his three years in Sound he had come to understand many things. He spent his days training to become the most deadly and powerful shinobi he could be, all to further his goal for revenge. But his nights were spent alone, in his cell, with only his memories and conscience for company. In many ways he had been an arrogant fool, thinking that he could do everything by himself, that having things like friends made him weak. That as a twelve year old kid he could take on one of the most powerful ninja in the world and win. That he could disrespect and ignore the advice and guidance of shinobi with far more power than he may ever have. Yes, he had been a fool. He lost so many opportunities to become more powerful due to his pride, thinking in the end that he had only one option.


He had done wrong by so many people, none more so than his closest friends, his only friends really. He missed them, and he could admit that now. How many times had he wished it was a different obsessive kunoichi and loud-mouth shinobi walking his path with him? He wondered if they still thought of him, if they hated him. He wouldn’t blame them if they did. If he ever had the chance again, would they forgive him? If they did, he knew he wouldn’t deserve it.


None of it mattered anyway, it was neither here nor there. He couldn’t go back and change things. He had chosen his path, and he had chosen to walk it alone. True, he had companions, but they didn’t understand him and never could. They were in this for their own selfish reasons. He was aware now that his brother had manipulated him badly. Itachi’s goading had twisted his way of thinking. Even he didn’t believe half the things he said to tease and torment Sasuke, driving him over the edge of reason. While it was true that he believed emotional ties made one weak, even Itachi didn’t get to where he was alone. Akatsuki was a group of individuals, but it was a group nonetheless. They may not care about each other personally, but they accepted support and teamwork, something Sasuke had ignorantly overlooked and refused on his own path to power.


As far as his brother was concerned, it was still his goal to kill him, but not entirely for the same reasons as before. When he was younger, his burning rage and hatred were fueled by selfishness. Itachi had taken everything from him, ruined his life, stolen his happiness, tainted his future. He tormented him, twisted his mind, pointed out his failures and rubbed them in his face, held his weakness up for everyone to see. He humiliated him. Those were all selfish reasons, anger at what had been done to him. He wanted revenge. He needed revenge.


At night, in the darkness of his cell, Sasuke had thought over and over about why. Why did Itachi do it? Why did he leave him alive? Why did he need revenge so badly? Many nights of soul-searching led him to one conclusion: he didn’t need revenge, he needed justice.


The Uchiha were a proud, disdainful and arrogant clan. Many, like his father, were cold and unloving, raising their children mercilessly as tools to further the Uchiha agenda. Sasuke had gained enough perspective to see that. One could play the devil’s advocate and say that they reaped what they sowed. If he was honest with himself he couldn’t completely blame his brother for becoming exactly what his clan wanted him to be; the perfect, emotionless killing machine. But Itachi was clearly insane, his logic and justification for the mass murder of his entire family made no sense and sometimes Sasuke wondered if that wasn’t the real reason.


But not all Uchiha had been like his father and the elders; his mother had been kind and as loving as she could be in their militaristic lifestyle and she wasn’t the only one. Wives whose only fault had been following their husbands blindly, children who were used as pawns in a power-play against other clans, toddlers and infants sleeping in their cribs; all had been mercilessly slaughtered. They didn’t deserve to die like that. It was his duty to bring justice to them, and he would even if it cost him his life.


It had already cost him part of his soul. He despised the fact that Orochimaru’s power now resided in him. He felt tainted, unclean. Some of the knowledge he gained during the backfired soul transfer disgusted him, and he vowed never to use some of the jutsu he was now capable of. He hated what he had to become just to stand against the ruthless brilliance of his brother. A demon for a demon.


He scratched absently at the curse seal on his shoulder, a permanent reminder of his bad judgment. It was dormant now with Orochimaru gone forever, but it still gave him phantom pains burned into his nerves from the agony he had lived with for so long. The more he had tried to fight it, the more painful it became. Once he arrived at Sound the pain had receded, but the closer his proximity to Orochimaru, the more it controlled his emotions and thinking. It fueled his rage and hatred, clouded his rational thinking. The sort of tunnel vision it caused had driven him to nearly kill his best friend and surrogate brother, twice.


“Hey look, the road is turning into cobblestones. I think were close.”


“You really are stupid, you know that right?”


“What the fuck Karin! I’m just saying what you said earlier!”


“Ugh. At least not all men are morons like you.” She rolled her eyes.


“What, you mean like Sasuke-kun?” the mist ninja mocked in a high, feminine voice “Oh Sasuke-kun, you’re so cute! You’re amazing Sasuke-kun, won’t you please pop my cherry?”


“Shut the fuck up Suigetsu, I don’t talk like that! And I’m not a virgin anyway.” a fight was clearly about to break out between the two.


“Riiiight.”


“Enough. Both of you shut the fuck up, now. We’re almost there.” Sasuke’s calm, deep voice was more than enough to quiet the bickering pair.


“I hope these villagers don’t blow smoke up our asses like last time.”


“I hope they have a whorehouse.”


“Ugh. Who would want to fuck you? Even whores can’t be that desperate for cash.”


Suigetsu was about to reply with another snarky comeback when they both felt the wave of murderous intent from the man in front of them. Sasuke was not a good person to piss off, so he made the wise decision to keep his mouth shut until they reached town.


Sasuke really hoped they had a good lead to follow this time. Or better yet, find his brother still in town. Hebi had been in the next town over when they heard the news of a big disturbance in this town involving red and black cloaked ninja.


The sooner he found Itachi, the sooner he could be rid of these two, and the sooner he could move on with his life. If he was still living of course.


Six years since he sold his soul for power. Six years since he abandoned all hope of a happy future and left the only good things he still had behind forever. He was so tired. Tired of hunting a madman and being chased by ghosts. He was ready for it to end.


The town came into view up ahead, and he quickened his pace.

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Pain. Throbbing, aching, pulsating pain hit Sakura like a tidal wave as she woke from her forcefully induced slumber. She kept her eyes closed tight, taking heavy steady breaths to fight the nausea welling inside her. If she opened her eyes her vision would spin and she would vomit. She remained perfectly still as she slowly adjusted to consciousness.


Gathering what small amount of chakra she could find, she gently began to probe around inside herself and assess the damage to her body. The first thing she noticed was the stiffness in her neck, giving her the worst headache of her life. It was likely that a blow to the base of her skull was what had rendered her unconscious. It was also possible she had a concussion from hitting the wall. The intense pounding in her temples was making it hard to focus her chakra but she steadied her breathing again and felt further. Her lip was cut and scabbed, she could feel the dried blood flaking on her face and the sickening metallic taste of blood stuck in her mouth and throat, causing the nausea to rise again. Her back hurt intensely from being thrown into a brick wall but there was no real damage there, thankfully. However she could tell by the way it felt like she was being stabbed every time she took a breath that at least a few ribs were broken. The rest of her body was undamaged and she was relieved; it could have been a lot worse.


As she slowly and carefully diagnosed herself, she tried to remember exactly how each injury was acquired. The details of her hopeless battle came back to her fuzzy mind piece by piece and she smirked in mild satisfaction; at least she wasn’t the only one in pain right now. It just figured that her two most painful injuries were both given by Itachi.


Taking a shaky deep breath, Sakura slowly opened her eyes and tried to adjust them to her surroundings. The tears of pain she had been holding back flooded out now as she opened her lids. Thankfully the room was fairly dark. There was light coming from behind her that seemed like the light of late evening, just after sunset. That meant there was a window, but the pain in her neck prevented her from looking over her shoulder to see what kind or how big. From what she could tell by the dim light she wasn’t in a cell. The walls were plain, dark wood paneling as was the floor, but there was no furniture. It looked for all the world like a spare bedroom. The door was a plain interior door without a visible locking mechanism of any kind.


Every muscle was stiff and aching from her contorted position on the cold, hard floor but it was nothing compared to her ribs and neck. She was lying on half on her side, half on her belly; one arm was completely numb from being pinned beneath her body and the other thrown carelessly over her side to rest on the floor. Apparently she had been unceremoniously dumped there by her captors, not that she really expected differently.


She had never been more afraid in her life, and that was saying something. She tried to contain her terror and think. Where was she? How long had she been here? Was she still with the Akatsuki or had they given her to someone else? She prayed for the former as fear of the unknown filled her. Whoever had her, what did they want? A memory of Tsunade informing her of her famed medical skills flashed before her. Did somebody want her for that? She hadn’t worried about that possibility since Orochimaru was killed but she realized now it had been foolish to brush it off. Whatever her captors had taken her for, she was sure she’d find out soon enough, and she would do whatever was in her power to not give it to them.


The more she thought about her situation, the more her fear was being overlapped by a deep, burning anger. She was angry at herself for not realizing it was a trap. She was angry at Tsunade for not checking the legitimacy of the mission. She was angry that someone thought they could just take her and make her do whatever it was they wanted her to do. She was just angry, period.


Her anger grew as she thought more about what had been done to her. They hadn’t used any weapons or jutsu on her, just gave her a good old fashioned beat-down with their fists like common thugs. Super strong, hyper-fast, overpowered thugs… but still. Then they just went and dumped her in a common bedroom with no lock on the door and a goddamn window! How weak did they think she was? Didn’t they see her kick one of them halfway through a building, didn’t they know she could punch through walls? Not that she wanted to be jutsu-ed within an inch of her life and kept on heavy lockdown, but their carelessness was insulting and a slap in the face to someone who had worked so hard to become powerful.


Even after her earth-shattering demonstration in the plaza, even after seriously injuring two of them, they still didn’t consider her a threat. It burned her up inside, and she wanted nothing more than to bring this building down on top of them, but she could barely move and every time she did her body was wracked with pain.


She also hadn’t recovered her chakra, not even enough to heal herself. Right now she was as weak as she looked and felt. Shit. She wasn’t going anywhere. She realized then that her chakra had most likely been drained by the shark man’s giant sword until she only had enough left to live and nothing else. She was too injured to fight and didn’t have the ability to heal herself. Even if she wasn’t injured, with her chakra drained she’d have nothing to fight with except basic taijutsu, and that wouldn’t get her past the bedroom door with an Akatsuki. And if all four of them were still lurking around the thought of escape was outright laughable. Her captors knew this of course, and hence had not bothered to lock her up like they may have otherwise, and Sakura began to feel stupid. She may be weak as a kitten, but she still got the feeling that they underestimated her, and she was still pissed.


She was interrupted from her inner ranting by the sound of footsteps outside her door. She instantly relaxed her body and closed her eyes as the door clicked open.


Attempting to feign sleep was apparently not going to work, as her captor gave a low, amused chuckle and nudged her broken ribs painfully with his toe. She groaned in pain and tried to curl further into a ball, opening her eyes to glare hatefully at the giant man over her.


“Wakey wakey, princess.” Kisame’s pointed teeth glinted in the dark as he leered down at her.


Princess? What the –


“Hope you enjoyed your nap. It looks like you’ve had a hard day.” Another laugh.


“Fuck you.” She spat out.


“Oh ho ho! Such ugly language from such a pretty little girl! Your mouth is as dirty as you are.” He began to walk around her in a slow circle, his boots clunking heavily on the floor, resonating in her ear against the floorboards as he inspected her. “Samehada likes the taste of your chakra, says it’s sweet. I think I’m gonna enjoy having you here as well, princess.”


Just as he completed his walk, another pair of stirrup-covered boots made its way into her vision. They were much smaller, and the owner moved so quietly that she couldn’t hear his steps over Kisame’s loud thunking. If she hadn’t seen him walk right through the door she wouldn’t have know he was there.


“Kunoichi.” The smooth, deep voice of Itachi filled her ears and she closed her eyes briefly in dreaded anticipation. “Why haven’t you healed yourself?” there was no lift in his tone to indicate he had asked a question, just an even, blank monotone.


Sakura nearly rolled her eyes as she opened them to stare at his feet. Wasn’t he a genius? “I cant.” she hissed through gritted teeth.


Itachi turned his head slowly in Kisame’s direction. “You drained too much of her chakra.” His tone gave no indication of what he thought of that fact. “How can she heal herself in this state?”


Kisame simply shrugged. “Less chakra makes her easier to deal with. She has enough to live. What does it matter if she stays injured or not?”


“She needs to be able to move when we do, Kisame. Unless you want to carry her everywhere.” Sakura thought she could hear the tiniest edge to his smooth voice now. He was irritated. At her condition or having to explain the obvious to Kisame, she didn’t know.


Kisame snorted at the suggestion. Sakura would have done the same, but her wariness of being kicked in the ribs again by the shark man held her tongue. What did he mean by move? They would be moving soon? Of course; Akatsuki never stayed put for long, Sakura knew that better than most.


“Ok, ok. Samehada is going to be disappointed.” Kisame sighed and lumbered out of the room.


Sakura was now alone with Itachi, and she was becoming increasingly afraid of what he might do. She hid it as best as she could, not wanting to provoke him into taking advantage of her fear. He said nothing, continuing to observe her like some kind of strange insect.


She didn’t know how long he stood over her silently; only that it was completely dark now save for the dim light coming through the open door from the end of the hallway. Her body hurt so much, and she was just about to give in to the oblivion of sleep when he finally spoke.


“You are allowed to regain your chakra, kunoichi, and you will use it to heal yourself.” She started at the sound of his voice, and wondered angrily if he’d waited for her to drift off on purpose. “If you attempt to use chakra for anything else you will be drained again and kept that way. Do you understand, kunoichi?”


His soft, melodic voice was almost hypnotic, but his presence filled her with fear. It was a strange combination, but she tried to appear as unaffected as possible. “Whatever.”


She expected at the very least to be kicked again for her attitude, but the blow never came; Itachi just continued to watch her. After a moment he spoke again.


“Your meals will be brought to you in here. There are chakra seals all over this room and one or more of us will be close by at all times. You cannot escape; it would be foolish to try.”


“What do you want with me?” she asked harshly, looking up at him for the first time. His face was hidden by shadow, but she thought she saw him smirk.


“You will find out soon enough, kunoichi, though I’m sure you can figure it out on your own if you try. For now all that is required of you is to stay in this room. One of us will inform you if we have other uses for you.” He turned and quietly made his way to the door.


What an arrogant asshole. Sakura didn’t care for her own safety, it was better if they killed her and got it over with; she wouldn’t be complicit to their demands or betray her country and friends.


“Itachi.” Sakura’s voice rang out with as much strength as she could give it in her weakened state, and the cloaked man paused in his steps, turning his head slightly so she could just make out his profile. “Go fuck yourself.” she growled.


He gave no visible reaction to her words though she could swear he snorted softly before he closed the door behind him and left her in darkness.

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Itachi walked quietly back down the hall away from the kunoichi’s holding room and descended the stairs. He thought about the interaction with his captive moments ago. She was clearly out of her mind, or she had a death wish. No one he had ever held captive had shown the defiance she had. Nor had anyone ever had the gall to insult him like she just did. Of course he knew she was provoking him. It might work with someone like Kisame, but Itachi was far too intelligent and calculating to be affected by her baiting.


Though to be honest with himself, he wasn’t entirely unaffected by the events that had transpired today and he found that to be strange. He wasn’t angry at her attitude and behavior, and he didn’t feel the urge to kill her for insulting him. If anything, he was amused. He couldn’t recall the last time he thought something was funny, and it was mildly refreshing to have such an atypical hostage. She may prove to be quite entertaining before she was no longer of use to them.


Their unconscious comrade in the other room and the blonde man down stairs in raging pain was evidence that he had been wrong about her physical weakness. Now it looked as though he was wrong about her mental and emotional weakness as well. She didn’t cry, or beg, bargain, cower or do any of the things people in fear of their lives do. She appeared to be more angry at her circumstances than anything. However, she had only been captive for a day and that may change. They didn’t bring her here to hurt or torture her, but people have broken under less.


Itachi was rarely wrong, and never twice in the same day, a fact that was not sitting well with him. What happened in the town square today had been the last thing he expected from the petite girl, and it irritated him to know he had miscalculated his plan. Of course he wouldn’t acknowledge any of that out loud, and his thoughtful expression was replaced with a blank one as he walked confidently into the dining room.


The two men seated at the large dining table looked up as he entered. Kisame was leaning the back of his chair against the wall and had both legs propped up on the table, elbows and ankles crossed. He eyed his partner hoping to catch a glimpse of what he thought about their little friend upstairs. He got nothing of course. Deidara was leaning slightly against the table, one arm resting upon it for support, the injured one pressed tightly to his side. His pale eyes were glassy with suppressed pain, and a thin sheen of perspiration was visible on his brow. He was openly glaring at Itachi, and the Sharingan user moved to an empty chair and sat down with his arms folded in front of him at the table, waiting for the inevitable argument.


Kisame was the one to speak first. “How is Tobi?”


Itachi had checked on their fourth comrade just before he entered the kunoichi’s room. “Still unconscious, but he will live.” Deidara grunted his disappointment at the diagnosis.


Kisame chuckled at the blonde, his voice held the constant tone of amusement he always spoke with. “You should’ve let her kill him then.”


“Speaking of that, Itachi…” he glared balefully at the quiet man.


“Yes, Deidara, say what you have to say.”


“What the hell were you thinking, hmm? That,” he pointed at the ceiling indicating the captive upstairs, “was the ‘weak and pathetic little kunoichi’ you want to use as bait for the Kyuubi? Do you know who that is, hmm?”


“Haruno Sakura, medic nin of Konoha, a friend and teammate of the Kyuubi.” he answered impassively.


Deidara shook his head and rolled his eyes. “Unbelievable. How is it that you don’t know any more about her than that?”


Itachi narrowed his eyes at the blonde. “Get to the point, Deidara. Obviously you know something else about her, so say it.” His tone was quiet as always, but it held a dark undertone that hinted it wouldn’t be wise to insult his intelligence again.


“That kunoichi up there, Haruno Sakura, is no ordinary medic. She was trained personally by the Sannin Tsunade. As I’m sure you saw earlier, healing isn’t the only thing she learned, yeah.”


“How do you know all of this?”


Deidara’s eyes narrowed and he didn’t answer right away. “…She was the one who killed Sasori-danna.”


“Are you serious?” Kisame finally spoke, staring at the blonde in disbelief.


“I was there. I was fighting your Kyuubi and the Copy Ninja outside, yeah.”


“If that’s true then we didn’t even see half of her power today! Bah, she was probably trying to avoid civilian casualties.” the shark man finished thoughtfully.


“There were four of us.” Itachi said simply, as if that explained everything.


“If it was one on one it probably would’ve been different, yeah. You saw what she did to that idiot Tobi. And to me.” He grumbled the last part under his breath.


Kisame smirked. “Hn, what’s up with you and getting injured anyway? First the Kazekage turns your arm into mincemeat. Then, the Copy Ninja wiped out the other arm. Then you go and blow yourself up just to stop him from zapping anything else off. You better be more careful, Deidara. The Zombie Twins are dead, remember? Kakuzu isn’t around to re-attach anything for you anymore.” He laughed, obviously pleased with his analysis.


“Don’t remind me, yeah. That was a long time ago.”


Kisame, however, wasn’t finished teasing his blonde companion. “How’s that arm feelin’?” he asked with a pointy-toothed grin.


“How’s it feeling? What kind of stupid question is that, hmm? Do you know how many bones are in the hand and wrist?”


Kisame just stared at him blankly.


“Thirty-five.” Itachi quietly answered for him.


“Thirty-five!” Deidara affirmed loudly. “And they’re all broken! And I think my damn arm is too! How does it feel?” he snorted at the stupidity of the question. “It feels fucking wonderful, yeah.”


“So…heal it.” Kisame shrugged.


“You think I wouldn’t have if I could, hmm? It’s too severe, and I’m not a goddamn medic! The most I can do is keep the swelling down.” He was getting increasingly irritated at the shark’s lack of common sense.


“Make her heal it then.”


“No thanks, yeah. I’m not letting that hellcat’s chakra anywhere near me again. I’ll find another medic.”


Kisame finally grew bored with provoking the blonde man and turned his attention to his partner. “What about you, Itachi? Are you gonna make her heal your eyes?”


“No.”


“Eh? Why not? She’s supposedly the best medic in Fire country next to the Hokage right? It’s a perfect opportunity while she’s here.”


“How do you suggest I ‘make’ her do it, Kisame? Any method of persuasion used would only increase her desire to try and cause me harm. Blinding me is only one of many things she could do if her chakra had free run of my body. It would be foolish to allow someone with a killing intent near my eyes.”


“Hmm. Your loss then, I guess.”


“So what’s the plan now, hmm?” Deidara asked, changing the subject.


“We made the trail easy enough to follow for shinobi with moderate skill. We will stay here until we confirm that our target has taken the bait and is looking for her, and then we will begin leading them to the final location planned.”


“How long do you think it will it take for them to find out?” Kisame asked.


“I would assume that once a week has passed and she hasn’t returned to Konoha, they will send ANBU to investigate and since we made it quite obvious what happened, the report of her abduction will reach the Leaf a day after that at most. That gives us almost a week before we have to move, providing no other hunter nins find this place before then.”


“So if all goes as planned from here out, they’ll never be closer than two or three days away until we reach the final location for the trap, yeah.” Deidara seemed to have calmed down somewhat, thought it was obvious from his stiff posture that he was hiding a great deal of pain.


“Correct.”


“And your brother?” Kisame asked.


“We don’t know where he is, so we will not know how long it will take him to find our trail, if he ever does. But he isn’t the main objective anyway, so it doesn’t matter if he follows us or not. He is merely unfinished business that I am ready to conclude.”


“How do you know he’ll come for the girl anyway, hmm?”


Itachi smirked. “I don’t really, it is merely a suspicion. But it doesn’t matter; he will come for me regardless.”


The three Akatsuki were silent after that, each man thinking his own thoughts about the situation. After a few minutes, Kisame sat up in his chair, the legs banging on the floor, and his heavy booted feet thunked on the ground as he stood.


“Well, I’m done for the night.” He walked out of the room toward his bedroom.


Itachi and Deidara remained quiet. The Sharingan user appeared to be lost in his own little world, as he often did, and Deidara was wishing there was some liquor in the house to alleviate some of the searing pain shooting up his arm.


After a moment, Itachi broke the silence. “Deidara, I have accepted your assistance in this matter, and I respect your input, but I will only say this once: do not call me out like that again.” His voice was almost a whisper, and his eyes continued to stare unfocussed at the table, but his point was made.


Deidara’s jaw clenched and fixed his mouth in a line. He didn’t think Itachi would let it go so easily. The moment he pointed out the Uchiha’s mistake he knew this was coming. He respected him as well and didn’t want to piss him off, but he had felt it needed to be said. “You know I meant no disrespect, yeah. This is your operation and we’re just here to help. I won’t question your judgment again. Now that you know all of the facts I don’t think I’ll have to, yeah.”


Itachi gave a small nod in reply, and after another moment stood up and left for his own room, leaving Deidara alone at the table. He didn’t think he’d be able to sleep tonight. Every time another stab of pain shot through his arm, the blonde ninja’s thoughts turned to the woman upstairs that caused it. Hellcat, he’d called her. The name certainly fit, and he wondered what other surprises would come in the next few weeks.

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A/N: Some of you may think that Sasuke was OOC here…but that’s sort of the point: he’s changed. No one is the same person they were when they were twelve. Are you? He’s matured, learned a few lessons and has become a man. Other than his slightly more mature view on the world he is not really OOC. He is still arrogant, and moody, and he will not be turning into some sweetheart of a guy I promise.