Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Head Rush ❯ Itachi's Moment of Reflection ( Chapter 1 )

Eyes as deep and crimson as blood stared at the small figure twisted in thin white sheets beneath streams of moonlight. He perched on her windowsill, watching her with intense… what did he feel… intrigue? No, it was something more exquisite. Something that made his stomach tighten and lurch. Fascination came close to what he held for the slumbering pink-haired kunoichi, but it didn’t quite explain all the feelings that came unfamiliar to him.

Obsessed was, as he’d heard people utter ridiculously from time to time, ‘hitting the nail on the head’; wherever that came from.

Obsession cleared up enough of the feelings for Itachi that it was easy to write it off as such. Ever since he’d beaten his brother helplessly into the ground, and she with her inferiority had dared to stand in front of him with a kunai in hand and glare at him with sparkling emerald eyes- ever since then he‘d been obsessed with her. She was bloody and tired and still had the audacity to challenge him, all to protect his sibling even as the brat told her, in so much disdain, to “butt out”. Even still she bared her fangs and threatened (well, tried to threaten) him.

Him. Uchiha Itachi.

And as he cocked his head to one side and peered at her with red eyes through wisps of ebony, he could feel the curiosity creep up into him. Who did she think she was? She was a helpless little ninja, obviously weaker than her other two teammates whom he’d disbanded without so much as a sweat. With bubble-gum hair and innocent green eyes. Radiating naiveté, she still found the courage to stand up to the Uchiha slaughterer.

In that moment he hadn‘t seen the weak little girl. He saw a strong willed kunoichi who was prepared to die to protect those she cared for, even though she knew he could kill her with one finger.

Itachi smirked to himself as he shifted weight from one foot to the other silently.

Young and because of which silly, he admitted, but her eyes had the intensity of anyone but a fool. Anything but a child.

His eyes roamed around the room he was about to enter. A typical young girl’s room, from the limited knowledge he had of girls. She seemed fond of the color red, and with amusement he noted a small journal, open, and with the name ‘Uchiha Sakura’ scribbled repetitively all over the page. His smirk both widened and embittered. His brother resisted her and yet she remained unwaveringly loyal to him.

Well, Sasuke was an idiot.

His eyes moved back over to her young face.

Porcelain in the moonlight. Such a doll and so precious and breakable it seemed. He licked his lips subconsciously. She was young and pretty and innocent and everything that Uchiha Itachi was aching to taint.

His feet touched the floor one after the other and in seconds he was next to her bed taking in her scent of wildflowers and cinnamon as it drifted to him with the breeze. His red irises roved over the form that thin sheets in the summer entangled, slightly damp from her sweat. Her eyelids fluttered with dreams, long lashes sweeping over pale cheeks, still plump with youth.

Such a creature…

He frowned only a little, unnoticeable to an un-keen eye, when he thought about how unappreciated she was. Then had the urge to chuckle at himself.

Having such thoughts of the opposite sex was unbecoming of Itachi.

Could this little girl really enthrall him so? Most likely. Things that Itachi couldn’t have, would never be allowed to have, had always attracted him. And she definitely attracted him.

When he’d encountered their party in the woods the previous month, he’d spared her no more than a second’s glance before sending her flying into a tree, forgotten. She was nothing special, just another shinobi waiting to die. Their eyes hadn’t connected then. He’d had more important matters to see to than some silly girl at any rate.

First and foremost was the Kyuubi vessel. Which included, of course, getting his foolish little brother out of his way. And just when he was about to accomplish this, she finally picked herself up from the ground and dove in front of his nearly unconscious sibling and looked his attacker squarely in the eye. It rooted Itachi to the spot and had him, former Anbu captain, prodigy of the once famed Uchiha, and member of the lethal organization Akatsuki, reminding himself to breathe.

Now Itachi really wanted to laugh at himself. A little girl, stopping a former Anbu leader in his tracks with one look. He would have thought himself pathetic if he didn’t hold himself in such high regards.

He was assaulted once more with the memory of emerald staring into his sharingan, challenging and daring and not giving a damn about consequences. Not fearing. Maybe that was it… she hadn’t feared him in that moment. No one had ever dared not fear him. His own bastard sibling with aspirations to kill him still feared him.

Not the kunoichi. She’d stood feet away from his imposing form, crouched and ready to strike, and looked at him as if she were his equal. As if she could combat him in the most extremes. It was a stupid notion on her part. It was endearing to Itachi. At least it was in the only way a man like Itachi was capable of interpreting as something like endearing.

He remembered that in the moments they stared at one another, he considered the possibility that he was seeing a strength in her that no one realized, not even herself. A strength that made her the strongest of her team instead of the weakest. To bring this into fruition and make it a fact was a delicious challenge. And a wonderful slap in the face for his brother.

She stirred with a little whimper, kicking the sheets from her body, ridding herself of the unwanted warmth.

His eyes roamed over to her alarm clock next to the bed. It read 5:38 A.M. He decided that it was time to make his move, as she and her parents, ninja themselves, would all have to rise soon. Kneeling at the side of the bed, he gingerly slipped his arms beneath her; one arm securing her shoulder blades, and the other hooked under the bend of her knees. He lifted her light frame from the sheets effortlessly.

She squirmed drowsily in his grasp, but settled down soon enough as she a comfortable position, too sleepy to register the fact that she wasn‘t even in her bed anymore. He resisted the urge to scoff. She’d need a lot of improvement as a ninja if she didn’t even notice the change in her foundation enough to not go back to sleep. His gaze lingered a moment or two on her sleeping face.

He slipped soundlessly back out the window; kunoichi tucked in his arms.



Fallen Seraphim: Okay. Some minor changes from the first post, but not that many. Mostly formatting, some sentence structure stuff, and I reworded some things that didn‘t seem to flow as smoothly before. Also, deciding to extend my original chapter estimate to… I don’t know how long this thing will be. I guess we’ll be surprised together, huh?
Converting /tmp/phpPztTn5 to /dev/stdout