Naruto Fan Fiction / Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ Of Alchemists and Shinobi: The Broken Law ❯ Akatsuki/Seperated ( Chapter 9 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Chapter 9: Akatsuki / Separated

“Was the mission a success, Uchiha-san?” inquired the Hokage.

“Negative, Hokage-sama,” mournfully announced the masked ANBU, still standing at attention.

“What is the status for the team assigned to you?”

“Aoi-san, Ookami-san, and Akkanjou-san have all been…dispatched,” the ANBU announced mournfully once again.

“Uchiha Itachi-san, how many missions have you completed as an ANBU captain?” inquired the Hokage, resting his head on his fist.

“…Four A-rank missions, Hokage-sama,” Itachi replied in a monotone

“I see, you are dismissed. Submit the report by two days' time,” dismissed the Hokage.

“Arrigato, Hokage-sama,” thanked Itachi. He then snapped a salute and walked out of the Hokage's office. Before leaving, however, he removes his mask, revealing a face that could only be an Uchiha's; long black hair, emotionless dark eyes, and a medium sized, angular build.

He then slowly walked out of the tower and paced off towards the meeting place, where he would see her again. While he was making his way towards the meeting place, his cold, calculating mind tried to decipher what went wrong with the mission. As he replayed the mission over and over again in his mind, he discovered that they made only miniscule mistakes that would have only affected the success percentile of completion slightly.

`I must be calculating something wrong…there is no way that one man that possessed no visible hijutsu or doujutsu could kill three elite ANBU operatives and defeat an Uchiha ANBU captain.'

A small child's voice interrupted his train of thoughts. Itachi looked down upon the boy's face and saw a boy that looked the same age as his otouto. The child asked for directions to a training ground that most commoners would know, so Itachi thought it fair to threaten the boy's existence and then break his cane in exchange for breaking his chain of thoughts.

Shortly, he arrived at a small clearing near the outskirts of Konoha. There he saw a twenty five year old woman with long, wavy red rose colored hair, emerald green eyes, a purple blouse, golden armguards that twined around her arms like snakes, navy blue sweatpants, ivory leg-guards that mimicked her armguards, and black open toed sandals. But was most noticeable about the woman was her leaf hitai-ate that was used as a headband; it possessed a gaping gash through the middle.

“Itachi-kun, it's been a long time,” the woman greeted, her voice held a soft and comforting sound like velvet.

“Two years, two hundred and eighty seven days, two hours, forty two minutes, and seven seconds to be exact, Ai-san,” coldly corrected the Uchiha ANBU captain.

“That's my Itachi-kun, always so precise,” complimented Ai, winking. Itachi gave no answer to this. “The reason I asked you to come here, Itachi-kun, is because I have a proposition.” At this Itachi raised an eyebrow, waiting for her to continue. “My…captain has taken an interest in you, Itachi-kun. He wants you and your entire prowess to be in the service of Akatsuki. Of course, you'd be repaid, with immeasurable power that could rival that of Kami himself. So what do you say, join us and gain power, or stay in this wretched village and grow fat and weak and deal with your pigheaded clan? The choice is yours, Itachi-kun. Of course, if you decline, I will have to kill you,” threatened the woman. “You have one week to decline or accept my offer; meet me at this exact same spot at dusk. If you don't show, I will take that as a decline. So until then, ja ne.” Ai blew a kiss in Itachi's direction and then dissipated into a cloud of mist.

Itachi kept standing in the same spot, pondering his options. The wind began to pick up at that moment, blowing his hair to the side and his clothing started to billow. He then decided that it was time to return to his present place of captivity; the Uchiha estate. He had already come up with many different future scenarios for the two decisions that he was offered and as he began his return to the Uchiha estate, weighed each scenario against the others. By the time he reached the estate, he was almost positive of his verdict.

The two had been running for a day straight without food, water, or rest and were both dangerously close to falling unconsciousness. The only reason that they hadn't was because of their devotion to their surrogate older brother.

“Mallory, how tired are you?” asked Andrew, panting.

“Not that tired,” Mallory responded, who was also panting.

“You're lying,” bluntly gasped the boy.

“Honestly, I'm fine,” assured Mallory, still plodding on the rode. Andrew stopped his seemingly endless trudging and firmly grasped her shouler.

“No, you're not. And anyway, Frey would skin us both if he found out we were captured or attacked just because we were tired or hungry or thirsty,” smiled Andrew.

“I guess you're right,” conceded the girl, sighing. The two then walked over to a sturdy oak tree and collapsed against it.

“You should sleep now. I'll go look for some food and water,” offered the boy.

“I couldn't let you do that, I've already been too much of a burden to you,” declined Mallory. “You sleep, and I'll go search.” Andrew sighed at the persistence of his twin sister. She could be so infuriating at times.

“Let's compromise; I'll look for food while you look for water, deal?” asked Andrew.

“Deal,” agreed Mallory, smiling. The two then split up; unaware of the fact that they would not see each other again for a very, very long time.

********d

Mallory had been searching for an hour when she came upon a large river. It sloped over a rocky hill and looked clean enough to drink from. She bent down to take a drink from the crystalline water when she found the soft ground below the soles of her shoes to be slowly slipping.

`No…no…it can't end this way, I need to live! I can't die yet!' by the time these thoughts ran through the girl's mind she was already beginning her fall into the unforgiving torrents of the river, and Mallory had never swam before because she never would have thought it was a necessary survival tool.

She started flailing around in the water frantically and shouted help with gasped, staccato breaths. She was being carried quickly towards several large rocks, which would probably crush her body if she collided at the speed she was traveling at. The only solution that she could think of was to try to grab onto the first large rock, which was a little off to her left. To do this she needed to move over only a few inches to the left, but in the span of 6.5 seconds. She tried desperately to move by using her legs to propel herself while she extended her arms as far as she could to grip onto the rock. She felt it in her gut; she wouldn't make it. She would die right then and there, her body crushed by the hard, rough surface of the brown rocks. With all of her willpower, she reached out to grab the rock, but grabbed something else instead; something warm.

**YJJYHH***

Andrew had returned to the tree ten minutes ago carrying various nuts, fruits, and mushrooms and was wondering what was taking his sister so long to get back.

`We must have separated at least an hour ago; I hope she's alright,' worriedly thought Andrew while nibbling on a mushroom. He was so obsessed with waiting for his sister that he didn't notice a malevolent presence advance on him.

“Hey, kid, what are you doing out here all alone?” a man asked. He had bloodshot eyes, long, greasy black hair, and was wearing a long black trench coat with brown boots.

“I'm waiting for my sister,” answered Andrew, taking another bite out of the mushroom.

“You must be hungry, if you're eating a mushroom,” stated the man.

“Yeah, and I'm pretty thirsty too,” agreed the boy.

“Well, the nearest town's pretty close and I could take you there and get you lodging if you want,” proposed the man.

“That would be great. But, I need to wait for my sister to come back first,” declined Andrew.

“I have a pen and paper on me, why don't you leave her a note?” suggested the man.

“That's a great idea Mr…”

“Abraham; Abraham Valgot.” And so Andrew hurriedly scrawled out a note and placed it on the ground and placed some of the food on the edges so that it wouldn't be gone with the next gust of wind. He then followed the man off towards the nearest town, having no clue on how vastly that one decision would impact the rest of his life.