Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ A Red Rose ❯ Chapter 4 ( Chapter 4 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

IMPORATANT NOTE FOR PAST READERS!
A/N (06-27-13): Please see the A/N in the Prologue.

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“I’m not going to give up,” I said with determination.

Ayame looked at me in awe. Though she was a year older than me – well, what I assumed was my age anyway – she had never heard a story quite like mine, which I had explained over a breakfast of more ramen. Amnesia, it seemed, was not all that commonplace around here.

“You’re really brave,” Ayame said reverently.

I scratched the back of my neck, embarrassed by her praise.

“Not really,” I corrected with a sigh. “To tell you the truth, I was terrified the entire time.”

Well, when I wasn’t extremely pissed off, but I kept that particular tidbit to myself.

Ayame nodded as if in understanding. “Uchiha-san can be very intimidating.”

I swear my jaw hit the floor.

“Y-You know him?” I stuttered.

“Oh, everyone knows him,” Ayame stated seriously. “Everyone says that he’s a prodigy.” Ayame frowned.

“Why do they say that?” I asked, curious now. Sasuke had said something about him being a ‘captain’ of something. Something to do with ‘ANBU’, whatever that meant. What kind of person was this captor of mine?

Ayame hesitated. I could tell that she was debating on whether or not to tell me something.

“I’m not a bad person,” I said. “I may not have any memories but I know that much. I wouldn’t use anything you said against you or your village.”

This seemed to pacify Ayame somewhat but she still hesitated.

“What is it?” I questioned. “Why can’t you tell me?”

“Well, the reason behind why he’s called a prodigy is kind of a delicate topic outside our village. It’s fine to talk about it to other villagers in Konoha but a big no-no with people from other villages, even seemingly nice, decent people.”

“I see. And I might be an outsider, despite being a seemingly nice and decent person.”

Ayame nodded. I could tell that it was difficult for her to not explain it to me when she so obviously wanted to help so I decided to drop the topic for now.

“So, this village is called Konoha?” The same village that those music-note men had thought I was from.

“Yes,” Ayame confirmed, looking a bit relieved at the change of subject. “Well, Konohagakure, if you want to get really specific but most people just call it Konoha. It’s a village in the Fire Country.” It seemed like she was going to say more but she stopped.

“Ok. And who’s in charge here? Like, who would help me find my family?”

“Well, there’s the Fire Lord, the head of Fire Country, but I doubt he would do anything the help you. Too busy with politics and stuff. Then there’s the Hokage, our village leader. That’s the strongest shinobi in the village. Right now, that’s the Sandaime, the Third.”

Damn, more shinobi. No thank you.

“Is there anyone else who could help me?” I asked hopefully.

“Um… Normally I would suggest Fugaku Uchiha, the head of our police force but…” Ayame bit her lip.

“But what?” I demanded.

“Well, you’ve met already.”

“What?” I stammered, shocked.

Ayame just looked at me seriously. “The police chief is Itachi’s father.”

It took me a second to take in the full implication of that statement.

“His father’s the police chief?” I squeaked. Oh, no, no, no, no, no! Damn it all to hell!

Ayame nodded.

“But what about Itachi then? What does he do? Hell, shouldn’t he be in school or something?” I questioned nervously, suddenly afraid of the answer.

“Itachi finished school a long time ago, comes with being a prodigy. He’s in ANBU now,” Ayame replied.

“What’s ANBU?” I asked.

Ayame glanced around quickly then leaned closer to me.

“It’s a very secretive organization and I suggest you stay away from them,” she whispered and refused to say anything more.

Thoroughly confused, I sat back to digest this new information. I had the police chief and one of these ANBU on my tail. I didn’t know what ANBU was, but if it was too secretive to be mentioned it couldn’t be good.

A hand on my shoulder shook me out of my reverie.

“I think I’m going to leave now, Teuchi-san,” I said without looking up. “Thank you for th-”

Then I sensed him. I looked up.

Coal black eyes glared into mine.

Shit.

----____----____----

“Would you stop?” I yelled, trying furtively to yank my arm out of Itachi’s iron grip. This complaint, like all the others, was ignored as I was dragged with little dignity back to my own personal hell.

“You’re hurting me!”

Itachi sped up his already ground eating pace.

Well, I was stubborn, wasn’t I? Maybe it was time to act like it.

Itachi suddenly found his burden impossible to drag any further. After all, it was rather hard to drag a person across rough gravel without hurting them when said person was sitting down.

I watched with mulish amusement as Itachi spun around and took in the fruitless situation.

What happened next was not what I had expected to happen and I began to regret that stubborn streak. Something I was sure I had done numerous times before.

Because it was then that I learned that Itachi could be just as stubborn as myself as I found myself lifted into the air and slung roughly onto a firm shoulder. What little dignity I had left immediately flew out the window crying bloody murder.

Itachi carried me like a potato sack the rest of the way to our destination while I yelled, complained and kicked constantly, hopefully making it very difficult for him.

It only took me a short time to grow tired of my own antics and I ceased my assault with a resigned sigh.

Of course, it was then that I noticed the stares of the people we passed. I waved at some gawking females from over Itachi’s shoulder as he continued on his path. He and I were causing quite the sensation on the crowded streets.

“How did you find me in such a crowded village?” I asked Itachi, not really expecting an answer.

“I could sense you. You have a very distinct chakra,” was his surprising and monotonous reply.

I tried to turn my head to see his face, but of course, he studiously avoided looking behind him.

“What are you talking about? What’s chakra? You know, you still haven’t really told me anything about what you want from me.”

As per usual, I was finding, Itachi resumed his typical silence.

I huffed in frustration.

Eventually, I noticed his brisk pace slowing and glanced behind, expecting to see the towering walls of Itachi’s family’s compound.

The place we were headed to, however, was not the location of terror that I had had in mind. I gazed up at the new building as best as I could from my position atop Itachi’s shoulder.

Tall whitewashed walls supported a red roof on which was perched a large sign.

Fire, it read. As in, for Fire Country? Likely their village’s main building. I groaned. Perfect.

Even more terrified now that I knew where we were really going, my knees quickly buckled when Itachi abruptly set me down. This time though he didn’t bother to catch me.

Sitting stunned on the ground, I watched as Itachi begin walking up the stairs leading to the door into the building.

I could run, I thought, the idea extremely tempting in my head. I could escape.

Itachi looked back and his glare sent my thoughts of escape scurrying for cover in my mind. I knew Itachi could read my desire for freedom on my face – I wasn’t exactly trying to hide it – but this time, when he continued up the stairs, I followed. Escape, at least at this point, was futile.

By the time we reached the top of the stairs, I was sweating unattractively in the humid air. Hot, humid air which almost made it feel as though I were walking through soup. I was not used to this climate, a fact which was both disheartening and relieving at the same time. My family probably didn’t live here if I wasn’t adjusted to the climate, meaning that I was so much farther from finding them. On the other hand, belonging to a village where I was now almost a fugitive wouldn’t be the greatest revelation.

Walking inside, Itachi and I entered a curving hallway. We followed the hallway and came to another door which Itachi proceeded to swiftly knock at. When there was no reply, he opened the door and walked in.

The room which we entered wasn’t overly large, but the windows along the far side gave it a more open feel than it would have possessed otherwise. One of those windows was propped open to let in a cooling breeze that ruffled the papers on the large desk directly in across from the doorway. There were no other entrances that I could see other than the door through which we had just entered and the panoramic view from the bay windows didn’t lend much hope to a possible jump to safety.

Abruptly, I was torn from this perusal when I heard the word ‘relax’ whispered directly in my ear.

The fact that Itachi was able to get behind me without my noticing was disturbing enough, but when I felt his hands on my shoulders and his breathe brushing my ear, the surprise and fear that suddenly gripped me caused me to snap.

With my riotous emotions swirling and boiling within me, I went for blood.

Spinning around with surprising speed, I planted my fist with pleasing force on Itachi’s face. It was only slightly dimmed by the sharp pain left in my hand. The result, however, was a little disappointing when Itachi didn’t even have the decency to look surprised, but I wasn’t about to be deterred.

Days of hurt, anger, and despair, all raged within me, begging for release. Enough was enough.

Growling in rage, I screamed at the one person who could have, and should have helped me.

“This is why I left! This is why I ran away!”

Tears burned my eyes but I ruthlessly shoved them down.

“I will not relax,” I continued. “I will not sit quietly while nothing is being done to help me. I haven’t done anything wrong! Why won’t you help me?”

These feelings were consuming me and I couldn’t keep them from succeeding. I didn’t want to even try anymore.

“All you did was make everything worse! All I wanted was to find someone who knew me and get my memories back, but no! You couldn’t even let me outside, let alone search for anyone!”

I turned around, unable to watch him standing there, doing nothing.

“I hate you!” I shouted. “I hate you all!”

A couple tears escaped my white-knuckled hold.

“Why won’t you just leave me alone?” My voice cracked. “I just want to go home.”

The tears came now, stronger than before, and I let them come.

“I just want…” and I couldn’t finish. I didn’t know what I wanted. All I knew was that it wasn’t here. Once again, I found myself scrubbing at tears.

“Damn, I hate crying,” I said, producing a strangled, self-mocking smile as I was breaking inside.

…

“Then don’t,” came the muted reply.

I forced out a weak laugh. “We’ve been through this before. It’s not that easy.”

I scowled even though I knew he couldn’t see it. “And I don’t need your advice,” I added.

“Really now? I think maybe you should listen. I’ve found Itachi can give good advice when he feels like it.”

The unfamiliar, fatherly voice made me look up to see the old man walking into the room.

“In this case though, it might be best if you allowed your emotions to run their course, um?”

The old man smiled.

Behind me Itachi bowed. “Hokage-sama.”

I scowled. The village leader and top shinobi, according to Ayame. He didn’t look that strong to me.

Still smiling disarmingly at me, he motioned Itachi and I toward the chairs placed in front of the desk. Seating himself behind it, he gazed calmly at Itachi and me. It was kind of unnerving to me, actually.

“I expect that you want to know why you are here.”

Figuring that it had something to do with my recent escape attempt, I nodded.

The old man continued, “Well, before we get down to it, we should really find a name for you because I am at a loss as to what to call you.”

Not seeing how naming me anything other than my elusive real name was important to the situation at hand, I didn’t respond. Not letting my silence deter him, however, the Sandaime continued with the same welcoming air which I was sure was meant to lure me into a false sense of safety.

“What would you be most comfortable with? Pick any name you like,” he said and leaned back in his chair, indicating that the conversation would go no further until I picked a name for myself.

I gave a mental sigh at the old man’s insistence but also acknowledged that it would probably be for the best if the people in this village had a name to call me by other than ‘girl,’ or ‘hey you,’ or something. This pseudonym I was willing to give more thought to, but, as I had no ideas at the time, I still did not answer him, refusing to give in to his silent pressure.

He merely kept smiling.

“Can’t think of any? Maybe I know a few you may like. How about Naomi?” he suggested.

Honest and beautiful? I didn’t think so.

The Hokage accurately read my grimace. Good for him.

“Okay then. How about… Yua?”

Binding love? I’ll pass.

“Chouko?”

This one was deserving of a wince. Butterfly child? Get serious, old man. I was no butterfly.

“Kotone-”

“Enough already!” I finally huffed. “I can pick my own name in my own time. I wouldn’t even need one in the first place if you people would just let me find someone who knows me!”

Itachi’s quiet voice interrupted me.

“Amaya.”

I turned to stare openly at Itachi who had been so silent I had nearly forgotten he was there.

“What?” I breathed. I could feel warmth rising in my cheeks.

Itachi looked at me as though he wasn’t about to answer but he did, “Amaya. It means night rain.”

“I know what it means but why did you think of that?”

He looked out the window, seeming to close himself off again.

“It was raining when I found you.”

It was a simple enough answer but it astounded me that Itachi would come up with something so… sentimental. I hadn’t known him a long time, only a couple days really, but already I had the impression that that wasn’t his thing.

The old man butted in with his unwelcome input.

“So you like Amaya then?”

When Itachi moved his gaze from the window back to mine, I avoided meeting his eyes by looking back to the Hokage. This was getting… awkward.

“Yeah,” I said absently. “Sure.”

I moved back from my previous position of leaning almost out of my chair.

The old man folded his hands on his desk. “Well, now that that’s decided, let’s move on to the more important stuff.”

It was quickly becoming clear to me that this man was officially insane in that good-intentioned-crackpot-old-geezer kind of way.

Itachi just stared blankly out the window, obviously no longer counting himself important to this conversation.

“Start from the beginning,” the old man said, interrupting my internal examination of his mental stability. “Go as far back as you can remember and leave nothing out.”

I paused for a second, thinking this over. Should I tell him the whole story or leave out certain parts?

A heavy sigh escaped me. Despite it being only around noon, it had been another stressful day and I was already too tired to do anything but tell the truth. Not that I had ever been given much choice. So, I took a deep, calming breath and began.

“The first thing I remember is awakening to the sun shining warmly on my face. It was about mid afternoon and, seeing as how I can’t remember anything, I don’t know how long I had been lying there…”

Once I had started, I couldn’t stop. The story just poured out of me from waking up with no memories, to the men’s attempted abduction, to meeting Itachi for the first time.

Itachi seemed to become most interested in my telling of the tale when I recited the part about the mysterious power that had seemed to flow through me. He did not comment on it though.

When I got to the part about waking up in Itachi’s house, Itachi interrupted frequently to correct some events and input his own version of my captivity and re-capture at the ramen shop. He also mentioned some more terms that were familiar, yet unknown to me, such as rogue nin and chakra.

When I finally finished, both the old man and Itachi were silent. Itachi’s was more of a brooding silence however, while the old man’s was thoughtful.

After a few seconds, he seemed to come to a decision and I realized he must have been deciding what to do with me based on my story. I instinctively sat up straighter and tried to make myself as non threatening as possible; hands out in the open, calm expression, no shifty eyes.

“Mmm…” he began, “this is most intriguing.”

Itachi turned from, once again, looking out the window to look at the Hokage. The old man looked into my eyes.

“I believe that you are telling the truth about losing your memories,” -Thank god someone believes me! - “so I don’t see interrogation to be necessary, but until we can find out how this came to be and who might be looking for you, I have no choice but to keep you within the village and under surveillance.”

I knew what this meant. It meant I was going to be handed over to Itachi and his father again. I was going to help captive again; trapped.

“We have to find out about your origins before we can make any moves that may endanger the village.” His stern gaze locked onto my eyes. “You understand why we have to do this, don’t you? It’s for your own protection as well as ours.”

I had to admit that I did understand, but I still hated it.

The old man seemed to know what I was thinking through my silence alone.

“So I have your word that you won’t try to escape again?” He gestured to Itachi. “If you do, Itachi will have to hunt you down again,” and as a further threat he added, “with lethal force if necessary.”

“And if I don’t?” I didn’t really have much of a choice but it was always good to keep my options open.

The old man’s eyes dimmed a little as though with regret.

“Then I’ll have to hand you over to Ibiki, our interrogator and torturer, to get your promise the alternate and certainly less pleasant way.”

Swallowing, I nodded my agreement. I was not suicidal nor was I in any way fond of pain.

His smile was blinding. “Excellent!”

Then he proceeded to outline the terms of my captivity.

“You are free to go anywhere you want, within reason, within the village. You will, however, have an escort with you at all times. Itachi will mostly fill this role but, when he is not available, another ANBU will supervise you. In addition-”

“I’m sorry,” I interrupted,” but, what is ANBU?”

I caught Itachi’s gaze dart in my direction for an instant. The old man blinked in surprise, but quickly brushed it off.

“Itachi will explain the workings of the village to you in due time. Now where was I? Oh, yes. In addition, you will wear a tracker that will allow Itachi to know of your whereabouts at all times and will detect any further chakra spikes that may occur.”

I didn’t bother to ask what chakra was, knowing I wouldn’t get an answer. At least I would have a little freedom rather than be restricted to that medical room I had spent the last day or so in.

Itachi seemed to accept this mission with no question or hesitation and I wondered if he had done this kind of stuff before. I had thought he would at least have had some complaints at having to babysit me until all this could be sorted out, but obviously I was wrong.

Shouldn’t he be out hanging with friends or something trivial like that?

This was way too serious for someone who seemed just a little older than me. I had no choice, but Itachi did. It was strange how he just seemed to accept it as though it was his job to do so.

Maybe it was.

The old man was still talking. “We will contact Suna to see if they have any records, but the council doesn’t hold much hope that it will be that simple.”

I had no idea what Suna was, but I was slightly relieved that at least something was being done, albeit without my input, to discover where I truly came from.

In the end, this guy seemed nice enough. After what I had been through over the last couple days, however, I was not about to put much trust into first impressions.

I stared at the old man smiling serenely at me from across the large desk, going over what I had gotten myself into. Paranoid though I was, I had a feeling it would have been foolish of me to turn down his offer: freedom within the village in exchange for my complete cooperation.

It was that or imprisonment and torture. Naturally, the first had been more appealing. Despite what the old man- the Hokage- said, it was definitely captivity no matter how you looked at it.

Itachi continued to stare out the window.

“The only thing we can be certain of,” the old man was saying, “is that you are not from this village.”

I stiffened. As the words registered in my mind, the single phrase echoed over and over.

“…you are not from this village.”

I had already figured as much, but to hear it confirmed like that, as though it meant nothing, was difficult to hear.

He had said it as more of an afterthought than anything else, but that statement meant so much more to me. It meant that my family- if I had any- was not here. It meant that I wouldn’t be able to find them by staying in this village. It meant that I was back to square one. It meant that, within this village, I was still truly and utterly alone.

And it scared me. It scared me more than anything else had since I had awoken in that forest only to find my memories gone. It scared me more than when I had thought those men were going to abduct and eventually rape me. It scared me more than any torture or threats the interrogator could possibly throw at me. Because even through those times I had still been able to hold onto the hope – no matter how minuscule – that my family was near. The cold, hard fact that they were not and that I was alone scared me because when you’re alone there is no one there to help you; no one waiting for you; no one to help you get back up on your feet when you fall; no one to hold you and tell you everything will be alright… no one to care if you died.

So yeah, after all this time, I was finally scared down to the core of my soul.
And this fear would not release its icy grip on my heart anytime soon.