I'm so sorry for the late update; and after the breaking of the three review chain too…I feel like such a terrible person. Life (and high school) decided to be evil and load me with homework and give me writer's block (the evil kind where you know what you want to do but don't know how to write it, really annoying, but now I'm just rambling). I'd like to thank my band teacher for inspiring this chapter (Seven Nation Army has been playing in my head constantly since we're playing it at football games, and somehow it inspired me to write)! Anyways, today's my birthday…so happy birthday to me! ((I really hate homework))
WARNING!: There is a lot of violence in this chapter.
Chapter 15: Body Flicker
"Umm…Abraham how far away did you say that the next town was?" Andrew asked as the two of them drove in a well used, jet black car, which they had been doing for the last hour at least.
"Only a few minutes more," he said smoothly as he swerved to the left on the dusty dirt road.
'He said that half an hour ago,' thought Andrew suspiciously as he started to pound his foot on the bottom of the car to wake it up.
"Sorry, my foot's asleep," explained Andrew as he saw the questioning gaze of the older man.
'And his eyes…they just look…unnatural,' thought Andrew as he rested his head against the glass. He tried to close his eyes and get some sleep, but thoughts of his younger sister kept interrupting his mind. 'I hope you're alright…I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if you aren't,' thought Andrew.
After for what seemed like an hour, the old automobile pulled up to a medium sized house that seemed as if it was untouched by time, with perfectly polished windows, an immaculate yard, and a completely white washed paint job that seemed to shine in the background of the setting sun.
'This is creepy; who the hell would live in a place like this?' thought Andrew curiously as the car suddenly stopped moving while Abraham opened the car door and got out of it.
'You must be kidding me,' Andrew mentally groaned.
"What a bother," Abraham muttered. "It seems as if I miscalculated the amount of time it would take us to reach the town."
'No crap,' sardonically thought Andrew. "Well how long is it until we actually hit the town?"
"Let me put this way; by the time you get there, you won't find lodging anywhere," explained Abraham. "If you want, however, you may stay here, with me," he added.
'Do I have a choice?' Andrew thought. 'No.' "Thanks, I hope you don't mind if I do."
"Of course I don't," he answered as he shut the car door and walked around the car and up a dirt walkway that wound up towards the empty front porch of his house.
"What the hell have I gotten myself into?" muttered Andrew as he threw open the door and followed the man. 'If he tries to put even one of his fingers on me he's dead.'
(Naruto PoV)
"This sucks; I got kicked out of school yet again! And I didn't even do anything this time! It's all Sasuke-teme's fault; if he hadn't have "accidentally" spilled that paint can over then none of this would've ever have happened.
If he hadn't spilled that horrible pink paint all over me than I wouldn't have gotten angry and "accidentally" have spilled milk down his shirt…how did we even get our hands on paint cans and milk cartons anyway? I'm seriously starting to think that Kyo-sensei is out to get me.
First off, he always asks me the hardest questions; I mean how am I supposed to know the location of all thirteen vital points in the body, I'm only seven years old! Second, whenever something bad happens, I'm always there, like when the legs of that kid who sits next to me, Lee I think his name is, collapsed and I ended up paying for the chair and writing a formal letter of apology to him. I admit, I would be a likely suspect for something like that, but I mean, I'm one of the only people in the class who don't bully him just because his jutsu capabilities are even less than my own. And I can't do a jutsu for crap.
So here I am, in my apartment at three thirty in the afternoon with only you as my company. It hurts, ya know, being alone all of the time. It's alright for a while, I mean, it's kind of fun to isolate yourself at first, you get to think of new stuff to do and that kind of stuff, but then a numbing pain starts to hit you, and you truly feel alone and unloved. And now tears are starting to fall, but I'm willing them with all of my heart and soul to stop, because I know that when they start to fall, I won't be able to stop them.
I wonder how Elric's doing. Hopefully he's having a better day than I am; he has this thing about him. This thing, I don't know what exactly to call it, gives me hope that maybe I won't always be alone. It makes me think of what having an older brother or a father would be like; being supported but still having fights and stuff. I really hope that going to the Academy won't warp his mind like it did to the others…but that's just wishful thinking.
I need to stop writing though, because the door just opened, which means that he's probably home now."
Naruto frantically closed his journal and hid the book and the pencil back into his special compartment and awaited his roommate to enter his room when a thought occurred to him.
'The Academy doesn't end for another hour,' thought Naruto as his eyes widened. The door to his room was slowly opened to reveal a girl in her preteens holding two ninja-to smiling insanely.
"Are you ready to play Demon? Because I've been waiting a long time to play with you," asked the girl as she advanced on Naruto.
"Who are you?" boisterously asked Naruto as he jumped onto his feet, only to find that the girl was now right next to him. 'I've seen her before, I know I have,' he thought frantically as he whipped his head around to see what she was doing, only to feel a searing, intolerable pain shoot up from his wrist, which was quickly repeated in the other wrist. Naruto howled in pain as he tried to move his wrists, but found that they were pinned to the wall, both of them impaled with a ninja-to.
"I am revenge Demon; I am the one who claims vengeance on your soul," she snarled as she withdrew several kunai from her pouch.
"I am the embodiment for all that you've killed," she grunted as she stabbed him once in between two of his ribs and then left the kunai in.
"I am the grief that you've left here in the hearts of these villagers," she growled as she stuck another parallel to the first one.
"But most of all, I am a kunoichi of this village, and as so, I cannot allow any threat to go unpunished. And you, Demon, are the greatest threat of all," she spat as she embedded two more into each of his shoulder joints.
Naruto only gritted his teeth in response to this intense physical torture, not allowing her to have any more sadistic satisfaction as his expense.
"I'm not a demon," Naruto retorted instead, accidentally allowing several salty tears to fall from his eyes.
"You are, and demons deserve to burn in the fiery pits of Hell," she spat as she twisted the kunai that were stuck in each of his ribs, causing Naruto to clench his teeth harder as he tried moving one of his wrists, only to have a sharp sensation of pain shoot up his arm.
"Soon, Demon, I'll purge this world of your malevolence. But for now, I'll have my fun with you," she grinned maniacally as she began forming to form seals, the boar, which was followed by the dog, bird, monkey, and then finally sheep.
"You're more taciturn than usual, Itachi. Is there something bothering you?" the ANBU officer asked as the team of two scoured throughout the forest.
"No," answered Itachi detachedly.
"Can you describe the guy we're looking for again?" his partner asked.
"One Ashino Satoshi; B-class nuke-nin. He stands at a height of five feet six inches and he was last reported wearing long blue pants, standard ninja sandals, and bandages covering his midsection," mechanically responded Itachi, thinking of last week's encounter with his acquaintance.
"Stop," commanded Itachi as he stopped on the balls of his feet on a particularly strong branch of an oak tree. His partner did the same, albeit hastily. "Throw several kunai thirty degrees to your left," he commanded. The officer unquestioningly obeyed, and was awarded with a string of curses.
"Some shinobi he is," he scoffed as he preformed shunshin no jutsu (body flicker technique) to where he estimated the enemy to be located, which was quickly repeated by Itachi.
"Itachi-kun; you decided to come!" squealed the woman. "I see that the rumors of what you have become are true."
"What are the requirements needed to join this…Akatsuki?" questioned Itachi.
"Oh, there is only one really miniscule requirement Itachi-kun,"
Itachi was snapped out of his memory as he unconsciously brought up a kunai to block the barrage of shuriken that was thrown at him with startling accuracy.
"He decided to bring some friends with him; Ishogawa Kira, A-rank nuke-nin, and Edonichi Saizo, B-rank nuke-nin. How long do you think it'll take us to eliminate them?" asked Itachi's partner as he severed Satoshi's arm.
"Three minutes and twenty two seconds," responded Itachi as he launched a housenka no jutsu at the nuke-nin.
"Really, I believe it'll only three minutes and twenty seconds," disputed his partner as he mimicked his partner's technique.
"You're wrong, Shisui," retorted Itachi as he threw the kunai that still remained in his hand at the ninja sneaking up behind him.
"I beg to differ Itachi," said Shisui as he preformed three shunshin in quick succession, severing Saizo's jugular vein, slashing Kira, who was occupied pulling the kunai out of his shoulder, across his Achilles' tendons, and then retreating back ten feet to prepare a jutsu.
"Katon: karyū endan (fire release: fire dragon flame missile)!" Shisui shouted as he blew out a large mass of fire in the shape of a dragon at the immobilized Kira, burning him to death. "Now for our objective," announced Shisui proudly as he turned on Satoshi, who was attempting to escape, only to find himself face to face with the Uchiha prodigy himself.
"Please, please don't kill me!" begged Satoshi as he shakily got onto his knees, looking pale from blood loss. Seconds later his head was rolling on the bloodstained earth as Itachi cleaned his blade of the man's blood.
"Three minutes and twenty seconds, it seems as if even geniuses are wrong sometimes," proudly announced Shisui as he decapitated the corpses of Kira and Saizo and placed their heads into a sack made especially for the purpose of confirming that their objective was eliminated.
"So, it's come to this, eh Itachi?" asked Shisui as he felt, rather than saw, his best friend approaching from behind him. "Before you kill me, at least inform me of why," he commanded.
"Our clan is a disease that must be eliminated Shisui; I know you are not ignorant of this fact," answered Itachi. "And I need the power that has not been seen wielded by our kin for the past several generations."
"And what of your otōto?" asked Shisui as he dropped the sack onto the ground.
"Sasuke…he has done nothing wrong, but I cannot allow him to grow up as an elitist as we have my good friend. I will spare him, if only to see him one day grow strong enough to overcome the curse of our clan," answered Itachi.
"Well, then, I'll see you in Hell Itachi," smiled Shisui sadly as he felt the butt of Itachi's ninja-to strike a nerve, sending him into unconsciousness.
"Goodbye Shisui," responded Itachi as he hoisted his soon to be deceased best friend onto his shoulder and lifted up the sack holding the severed heads. 'Now to go to the Nakano River, where you'll die a painless, unconscious death,' thought Itachi as he walked towards Konoha where several streams met.
"Oh, there is only one really miniscule requirement Itachi-kun; you must sever all of your ties with this village, and decimate your clan," Ai answered in a saccharine tone.
"I accept the requirements," answered Itachi immediately.
"I will meet you back here in exactly two weeks time, so make sure you kill your family, or else I'll have to kill you," warned Ai in a surprisingly upbeat tone. "I'll see you in two weeks then Itachi-kun!" she said as she used a jutsu similar to shunshin to disappear from the outskirts of Konoha.
Itachi hardly ever doubted himself, but now was one of those very rare occurrences when he did. 'Otōto…don't cower in the face of death…and then maybe I can repent for these sins that I'm about to commit with my blood on your hands.'
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Sorry for the short chapter, but I really need to end it here.
I'll try to update again by the end of the month!
Please review!