Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ HitMan (ItaNaru SasuNaru) ❯ SIX ( Chapter 6 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: yaoifan01 
Anime/Manga: Naruto Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Action / Angst / Suspense | Type: Shounen-ai | Uploaded On: 01.31.2007 | Updated On: 01.31.2007 | Pages: 5 | Words: 4.2K | Visits: 378 | Status: Work In Progress
Anime/Manga: Naruto Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Action / Angst / Suspense | Type: Shounen-ai | Uploaded On: 01.31.2007 | Updated On: 01.31.2007 | Pages: 5 | Words: 4.2K | Visits: 378 | Status: Work In Progress
Chapter Six
The blue-eyed boy gazed into the killer’s face, examining it; he looked so soft and peaceful as he lay sleeping soundly beside the small boy. In sleep, he seemed a completely different person than the man who had killed so many people earlier in the day.
Naruto was starving. Even so, he stayed by the killer’s side too afraid that if he moved so much as an inch the man he had put all his hopes on would die.
Besides, Naruto reminded himself, he owed the stranger this much, because he had, after all, rescued him.
I wonder what he is dreaming about, Naruto thought as he stroked the killer’s long dark hair. The man stopped trembling, and Naruto was relieved.
Darkness…
Lonely darkness…
Cold, lonely Darkness…
How long have I been in this darkness? Days? Months? It feels like eternity.
Itachi lay face down on the stone floor in a puddle of cold urine. Rats squeaked about, nibbling on the rotten bread and forgotten things the guards had left behind.
There were no windows, and no light, just the darkness and an eternally locked door.
Itachi’s pale naked body was covered in old and new scars. Scars from burns, whips and even the occasional stab wound. He did not wonder at how they had come to be. Sometimes, he counted them to ease the boredom.
Voices, a cacophony of voices, murmured in his ears, ebbed away, murmured again, cackled, shrieked, cajoled; voices pleaded with him to stop living, to die and be dammed with the rest. But there was one voice that was stronger then the others. A laughing mockery of kindness and hope.
Kill everyone! Leave not one alive!
Who are you?
Me? The voice almost sounded bemused and slightly offended.
I am the tiny voice in the darkest corners in your mind. I am you. Why do you allow yourself to be dammed in this darkness? Is it because you killed your family?
No, I was glad for what I did. They needed to die.
And your mother?
That woman…gave me life, and nothing more.
Even now as Itachi lay in the cell he could still hear her screeching voice, clawing painfully up his spine; yelling…always yelling.
Itachi, why did you do that?
Do what? He would say.
You know what I’m talking about you little bastard! I wish you had never been born! I hate you: you ruined my life! I wish you were dead! Why were you even born? Why did God curse me to have a child like you?
And then she would cry.
Itachi wouldn’t say anything; he would just glare at her with all the hatred a child could muster.
Good mothers don’t say things like that to their child. I’m glad I killed her, no regrets.
No regrets.
Well, if that’s not the case, then it must have been when—
Shut up…
What? You don’t remember? Or was it because you liked it, you liked it when they ripped you open and forced themselves inside your pathetic self. Yes, she watched it all happen…and did nothing. Is that why you hated her?
Mommy! Mommy, make them stop! Please, Mom, it hurts! Mom!
SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! Itachi pressed his palms flat over his ears, trying to block out the hundreds of voices screaming on the inside of his head.
Get out of here, then! You don’t belong here, but you must kill. Yes, many, hundreds even. Kill as many as you can, and make them suffer! Make them suffer as you have suffered…
It was then the prison door flew open, the light was so bright in the never-ending darkness of his cell that Itachi had to shield his eyes against the pain.
Itachi counted four, no, five guards that entered his chamber.
“What should we do with him? One of the officers asked. “Should we beat him again?”
“I have a better idea. Look at that pretty mouth; I’m sure he has much better uses than to be our punching bag.”
“Yes, I see what you’re saying. Much better things, indeed.”
“Fuck you…”Itachi muttered, gritting his teeth. He felt his muscle contract, pushing out blood from injuries left over from their last visit.
“No, that’s what we are going to do to you.”
“We have connections. If you do what we say, we will forget all about you killing a fellow inmate. You’ve been in solitary for a year; I know you want to get out. We can make it happen.”
One of the officers unfastened his belt buckle and pulled his pants down around his knees. Itachi sat up, his chains rattling as he did so. He stared at the thing being presented to him for a moment. When Itachi made no effort to suck on the hardened cock, he felt a hand yank his hair and shoved face his into the tangled pubic hair.
“Suck on it, damn you!”
Do it. You know you want to! Do it. DO IT!
Itachi put his mouth around the pulsating organ, his tongue backend into the depths of his mouth, like a caged animal away from an outsider. He had no desire to suck on it. He wanted them to pay; he needed them to die. So, as hard as Itachi could, he clenched his jaw shut, tearing down with top and bottom teeth, ripping through the soft flesh.
Mistake number one: any one who wants you to suck on their dick is begging for it to be bitten off.
“HOLY FUCKING SHIT!”
Itachi quickly stood up, wiping the blood from his mouth and watched with pleasure as the man fell to the floor screaming and clawing at his groin in pain. One of the men drew his gun at Itachi with shaking hands.
The raven-haired man spat out the remains of the other officer’s cock and smiled coldly as the red liquid ran down his face and off his hair.
“Don’t come at me, o-or I'll shoot!”
“Unlike you weak bastards, I don’t need a gun to kill.”
Without another word, Itachi charged at the officer with the gun at the same time dodging the flying bullets that were going everywhere, ricocheting off the walls. Itachi attached from below: with his left leg he kicked the gun out of the frightened officer’s hand.
The cold-blooded killer’s fingers dug deep into the eye socket of the stunned man. The others could only look on with shock and horror as Itachi pulled the eyeball out of his head with a strange, gooey popping sound and played with stringy cord that was attached to the inside of the man’s skull.
The killer looked at the trinket he had snatched, considering it for a moment then he let it slip through his fingers onto the floor, bouncing away like a rubber ball. He squashed it with his foot enjoying the clear white liquid splatter underfoot.
“He’s insane! Get outta here!”
Mistake number two: Running away tends to draw the attention of the predator. Foolish cowards deserve to die, no mercy!
“No, you can’t run away! Not yet; I’m not done playing with you!” He grabbed the nearest man by the hair and slammed his face into the stone wall with all of his strength. He repeated this action again and again until the man’s face was nothing more than pulp, leaving chunks of flesh on the wall to slide to the floor with disgusting wet splats.
Three down, two more to go!
The officers clawed at the walls, breaking nails and bloodying fingertips while Itachi beat at them with the back of his fists turning them into unrecognizable chunks of well-tenderized meat, whimpering and moaning in pain. They would die, and they would suffer until they drew their final breaths.
Once he made sure they where all dead, the killer bent down to check the officers’ pockets. He found what he was looking for: keys to the prison doors. Then he swiped a pair of pants from one of the dead men, as well as a gun and a few extra rounds.
Escaping his cell easily enough he skulked in the shadows, attempting to escape from the prison. But his escape had not gone unnoticed, someone had sounded the alarm, sending guards looking everywhere and he did not escape unseen.
“There he is! Get him! Don’t let him escape!”
Itachi, realizing he was surrounded by enemies, charged the man closest to him: his first victim of many. That’s when it happened, the killer’s first murderous black out.
When Itachi awoke, he found himself in a small boat with Kisame at the rudder. He looked at himself; he was drenched in blood. He wasn’t sure how much of it was his own. He certainly didn’t feel any pain, just the buzzing in his head that told him he was coming down from an adrenaline high.
“That was In-fucking-sane!” Kisame yelled into the wind. “You really are something, Itachi!” Kisame turned around to get a quick look at his boss, and the foolish grin he had been sporting dropped from his face. “Fuck, they really did a number on you.”
“Kisame, what happened?” Itachi asked, obviously not terribly concerned with his wounds.
Kisame wasn’t listing to Itachi and he went on talking. “It would probably be a good idea if we laid low: head off to Mexico, hit up some bars and have a couple of Coronas, just chill till the excitement dies down.”
“What the hell happened, Kisame?”
“Fuck, you don’t remember?” Kisame turned around once more. “It was a blood bath; you just started killing people right and left. I mean, there was such a panic I was able to steal a boat without anyone even noticing.”
“I don’t remember…any of it.”
-ooo-
Warmth…
Heat…
Light…
Warmth came back into Itachi's body. It was indescribably wonderful. He would rather die then admit it, but he loved the warmth, he wanted nothing more than to curl in closer to it and hold it to him: never let it go... but that would show weakness.
Then the heat faded away, once more. Just a ghost of teasing siren-song.
He was awake, but his eyes remained shut. The irritating early morning scream and rattle of the train passing by overhead let him know he had at least made it to his own home. The ceiling shook dropping dust on the floor and the house shook with vibrations. Stupid train.
What did he do last night? Nothing at all, perhaps, yet remorse of that hell clawed up and down the inside of his ribs.
He desperately needed a drink, he decided. So wincing, Itachi slowly pulled himself from out of the bed. He stopped suddenly when he realized that half of his body was covered in poorly wrapped bandages. Annoyed, he tore them off with a swift pull.
That warmth, was it all just a dream? Was I so dazed that I don’t remember tending to my wounds? Not that it would be the first time, but that warmth felt so real.
Itachi walked to the bathroom and undressed himself, turning on the taps and testing the temperature. Stepping into the tub, he let the spray of semi-cold water hit his back and he watched the blood from his wounds turn the water pink and swirl away down the bathroom drain.
Once he was done washing himself, he turned off the water and wrapped a towel around himself before dressing in a black knitted turtle neck, and dark grey pants with a row of pockets on the side. He slung a matched set of shot guns over his shoulders and put a revolver in the back of his pocket, checking first to make sure that it was fully loaded.
The phone rang and lazily Itachi picked it up, and as usual, said nothing.
“Where are you? I went by your house, but no one answered.”
“Busy.”
"Ok…Um, I’m going to meet Kakashi in the Town Square in the East Side of town to get the money. I’m sure you want to come as well?" Kisame suggested, but it was more of a question than a statement. It could be hard to predict Itachi sometimes, after all.
“I’ll be there.” Itachi answered.
“Ok, I’ll see you then.”
Itachi wearily hung up the phone, walked over to the living room counter and pored himself a glass of strong whisky. Lifting the glass to his mouth, he was surprised to notice a small, golden-haired boy sitting on the edge of his mattress.
The boy started to panic, waving his small hands in a gesture that usually meant either surrender or no offense.
“I-it’s not what it looks like! I wasn’t breaking into your house or anything! It’s just when you saved m-me from those cops, a-and you left before for I could thank you. And then you fell, and then –and then- I wanted to repay you...” Naruto realized he was babbling like an idiot so he cut himself short.
“Saved … you?” Itachi said still half dazed. “Why would I save you? You’re weak. I hate weaklings; just thinking about it makes me want to end your pathetic life.”
“I don’t understand…”
The killer wasn’t about to waste another breath on the kid, so he pulled his leather coat over his shoulders and walked out the door.
“Hey! I’m not done talking to you!” Naruto shouted. “Fine bastard! You think your so high and mighty, then kill me!”
Without any sign of hesitation, Itachi pulled out the revolver, in hopes of making the boy run away in terror, more than anything. It had no affect.
“What the hell are you waiting for? Shoot me, God damnit!" Naruto grabbed the.44 Magnum revolver and direscted it towards his head. “Shoot me, you fucking bastard! I don’t deserve to live! Kill me!”
Itachi stood dumbfounded in front of the blonde boy. For some strange reason this boy reminded Itachi of that woman. The woman who stood in front of him a month earlier and was unafraid of death, making no attempt to protect her baby from him.
Something inside Naruto broke and tears suddenly spilled down the boys sun-kissed cheeks. His knees dropped out from under him sending him crashing to the floor. “Everyone I love,” he whispered, the smiling faces of Neji, Sakura, and Tenten flashed through his brain. “Every one I care for…” Naruto buried his hands in his face. “I’m a curse and I don’t deserve to live. I don’t want to live anymore.”
Itachi pulled his gun back and tucked it away in his back pocket. “You’d only be a waste of a bullet. Besides, I have no real reason to kill you.” He turned away from the boy and began to walk down the ally way when he then heard the boy call after him.
“You eyes…” The killer stopped moving. “They betray you, you know, I can tell your hurting inside just like I am.” Naruto stood up wiping away his tears on his sleeve, wiping away his weakness. “You’re a hit-man right? I want to hire you. There’s some one I need you to kill for me.”
“You? Hire me?” Itachi asked, incredulous. “You don’t have a penny to your name. How are you going to pay me?”
“I may not have money, but I think... I have something you might want…”
“Spare me the bullshit, kid. I don’t have time to waste on a worthless piece of shit like you.” Itachi started walking towards town.
“Wait! Wait, please hear me out!” Naruto called after him and when Itachi turned to look at him, he pointed to his face, “I have a tiny chip inside my skull. It’s worth—I don’t know how much—probably millions,” Naruto lied; in truth he had no clue to how much the chip, or rather the bomb, was worth, if anything.
Itachi still held his gaze at naive young boy, not saying anything.
Ok… it doesn’t look like he is buying it. A sweet drop fell from his brows. Ok, ok. Time now for plan B!
“If you do a hit for me, then I’ll do what I’m best at!”
“And what is that?”
Naruto clenched his fists and shouted, “I will clean your house, free of charge!”
That was the last straw. He had heard more than enough of this kids babble. In a flash Itachi pulled out his gun and pulled the trigger. Click
“Hold it! You should be thanking me! Your place is a goddamn pigsty!”
Angrily Itachi then pulls the trigger again in rapid procession.
Click- click- click- click.
Itachi looked at his gun in disbelief.
Blanks? Every one of them a blank? Well this has gotten interesting. The kid has some kind of luck, it seems.
“Fine, you do have balls, kid. I’ll give you that.”
“It’s Naruto—”
“It’s Sakura-chan! C-h-a-n! Sakura-chan! Get it right Naruto Ni-san!”
“But I don’t really see the point of honorifics!” Naruto said.
Sakura smiled as she walked down the hall with Naruto. “It’s a sign of respect; my mommy said that if people was more respectful, this world would be a better place,”
“It’s Naruto-kun”
“Whatever, you can come with me if you like, I'll figure out what to do with you later.”
-ooo-
“Hang the priest! Hang the priest!” The mob of hundreds chanted. “Kill the scumbag!”
Father Shino stood at the center of a wooden platform, his feet steady and firmly on the ground. His hands where tied behind his back and there was a noose was around his neck. It hadn’t yet been tightened. One man tied his feet while another flogged him severely.
Little kids and adults alike began finding rocks on the side of the rode and hurling them at the priest. Much of the mob was half-crazed at the thought of this man about to die: their faces contorted into disgusting shapes: victorious and self-satisfied. They were filthy people, with unclean hair and teeth that would have made the British Victorians look like brilliant dental surgeons. Many waved machetes or nail-studded bats, screaming and chanting curses and cuss words.
“Who are we waiting for?” Naruto said, his eyes scanning the deranged mob.
“Kisame,” Itachi told him blandly.
“Who is Kisame?”
Naruto didn’t get an answer the second time, so he turned his attention to the priest set to be hung that afternoon.
“Why do they want to kill him so badly?” Naruto asked puzzled. “He must have done something pretty bad.”
“He probably did nothing worse than find himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. That’s just how it is,” Itachi explained.
I should have left the annoying brat at home…
“People don’t like priests, and you kill what you don’t like.”
“We have to do something!” The boy cried out suddenly, eyes huge and sympathetic, his voice colored by something other then anger. With every blow they gave the priest Naruto found it harder and harder to stand still.
“What are you talking about? You’re just a kid, what can you possibly do?”
“Anything is better then standing around here, doing nothing!”
“Go on then,” Itachi replied his head gestered to the croud, annoyed that Kisame was once again making him wait. Itachi hated waiting. Maybe he should shoot Kisame and hire some new help…
“I’m going to need your help! I’ve seen your shooting! You’re amazing! In the bar you didn’t miss even once!”
Itachi ignored the boy and turned his focus on the priest. He seemed extremely composed, considering he was about to die: his back was slouched and his slanted eyes hidden by black shads looked down. It really looks like he doesn’t want to be saved…
“No…”
“No! What do you mean no?” he growled under his breath in frustration. “Forget it then, I’ll do it myself!”
Stupid kid…he doesn’t know what he is dealing with.
Naruto pushed himself through the crowd, all shoulders and elbows, but everybody was pushing everybody and the going was slow. Move out of my way!
He made it to the platform, battered and mildly bruised, and hauled himself up holding out his arms to shield the priest standing behind him.
Itachi watched, mildly amused, from the far corners of the back, his arms crossed leaning against the brick wall. When Naruto looked over the crowd to meet his gaze Itachi smirked mockingly at him, as if to tell the boy he had no chance of succeeding.
Naruto ignored him and those cold, blood-red eyes. He wanted, more than anything, to save someone. He needed to: it didn’t matter who anymore. He just wanted to be strong for once, to protect someone rather than be the one in need of protection.
“You can’t do this!” he yelled into the crowd. “This isn’t right! He did nothing wrong! Just because some one is a priest doesn’t men you should kill him!”
The crowd stopped yelling and chanting, and became silent. So very, frighteningly silent. Naruto stood still his arms spread out, his mouth set and blue eyes determined, his wheat field hair waving in the wind. What was only a few seconds in the face of the angry crowd seemed like an eternity.
“Leave me…” Shino managed to whisper. “It’s for the best.”
Surprised, Naruto turned to look at him. A rock flew from the crowd and stuck Naruto on the side of his head. The blow knocked the boy backward and he landed butt first, with his legs sprawled out. The angry mob grabbed for his ankles, pulling him into the crowd.
“Kill the kid!”
“Yeah!”
“Kill the priest lover!” they chanted. “Kill him! Hang him!”
Oh… shit!
The boy tried his best to kick the angry people away from him. All efforts were in vain as the mob began tearing into him. They pulled his legs from one direction and his arms in another. Hands grabbed for him, ripping his black tank top to shreds. People yanked his hair, even biting him; ripping the skin.
“Hang the priest lover!” With haste they tied a rope around the boy and put a sack over his head.
“Kill them!”
“On three hang them both!”
Itachi looked on as the mob carried Naruto back onto the platform and stood him up next to the priest, where they were intending to see him hanged. They tied the ropes and counted.
“One!”
The boy doesn’t matter to me. He’s small, but in a few years I might be able to sell him off for some decent cash. People always seem willing to pay good money for kids like that…
“Two!”
Boy equals cash, and cash equals power, simple.
Itachi pulled out both of his double barrel shotguns and aimed them at the ropes.
“Three!”
To be continued…
The blue-eyed boy gazed into the killer’s face, examining it; he looked so soft and peaceful as he lay sleeping soundly beside the small boy. In sleep, he seemed a completely different person than the man who had killed so many people earlier in the day.
Naruto was starving. Even so, he stayed by the killer’s side too afraid that if he moved so much as an inch the man he had put all his hopes on would die.
Besides, Naruto reminded himself, he owed the stranger this much, because he had, after all, rescued him.
I wonder what he is dreaming about, Naruto thought as he stroked the killer’s long dark hair. The man stopped trembling, and Naruto was relieved.
Darkness…
Lonely darkness…
Cold, lonely Darkness…
How long have I been in this darkness? Days? Months? It feels like eternity.
Itachi lay face down on the stone floor in a puddle of cold urine. Rats squeaked about, nibbling on the rotten bread and forgotten things the guards had left behind.
There were no windows, and no light, just the darkness and an eternally locked door.
Itachi’s pale naked body was covered in old and new scars. Scars from burns, whips and even the occasional stab wound. He did not wonder at how they had come to be. Sometimes, he counted them to ease the boredom.
Voices, a cacophony of voices, murmured in his ears, ebbed away, murmured again, cackled, shrieked, cajoled; voices pleaded with him to stop living, to die and be dammed with the rest. But there was one voice that was stronger then the others. A laughing mockery of kindness and hope.
Kill everyone! Leave not one alive!
Who are you?
Me? The voice almost sounded bemused and slightly offended.
I am the tiny voice in the darkest corners in your mind. I am you. Why do you allow yourself to be dammed in this darkness? Is it because you killed your family?
No, I was glad for what I did. They needed to die.
And your mother?
That woman…gave me life, and nothing more.
Even now as Itachi lay in the cell he could still hear her screeching voice, clawing painfully up his spine; yelling…always yelling.
Itachi, why did you do that?
Do what? He would say.
You know what I’m talking about you little bastard! I wish you had never been born! I hate you: you ruined my life! I wish you were dead! Why were you even born? Why did God curse me to have a child like you?
And then she would cry.
Itachi wouldn’t say anything; he would just glare at her with all the hatred a child could muster.
Good mothers don’t say things like that to their child. I’m glad I killed her, no regrets.
No regrets.
Well, if that’s not the case, then it must have been when—
Shut up…
What? You don’t remember? Or was it because you liked it, you liked it when they ripped you open and forced themselves inside your pathetic self. Yes, she watched it all happen…and did nothing. Is that why you hated her?
Mommy! Mommy, make them stop! Please, Mom, it hurts! Mom!
SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! Itachi pressed his palms flat over his ears, trying to block out the hundreds of voices screaming on the inside of his head.
Get out of here, then! You don’t belong here, but you must kill. Yes, many, hundreds even. Kill as many as you can, and make them suffer! Make them suffer as you have suffered…
It was then the prison door flew open, the light was so bright in the never-ending darkness of his cell that Itachi had to shield his eyes against the pain.
Itachi counted four, no, five guards that entered his chamber.
“What should we do with him? One of the officers asked. “Should we beat him again?”
“I have a better idea. Look at that pretty mouth; I’m sure he has much better uses than to be our punching bag.”
“Yes, I see what you’re saying. Much better things, indeed.”
“Fuck you…”Itachi muttered, gritting his teeth. He felt his muscle contract, pushing out blood from injuries left over from their last visit.
“No, that’s what we are going to do to you.”
“We have connections. If you do what we say, we will forget all about you killing a fellow inmate. You’ve been in solitary for a year; I know you want to get out. We can make it happen.”
One of the officers unfastened his belt buckle and pulled his pants down around his knees. Itachi sat up, his chains rattling as he did so. He stared at the thing being presented to him for a moment. When Itachi made no effort to suck on the hardened cock, he felt a hand yank his hair and shoved face his into the tangled pubic hair.
“Suck on it, damn you!”
Do it. You know you want to! Do it. DO IT!
Itachi put his mouth around the pulsating organ, his tongue backend into the depths of his mouth, like a caged animal away from an outsider. He had no desire to suck on it. He wanted them to pay; he needed them to die. So, as hard as Itachi could, he clenched his jaw shut, tearing down with top and bottom teeth, ripping through the soft flesh.
Mistake number one: any one who wants you to suck on their dick is begging for it to be bitten off.
“HOLY FUCKING SHIT!”
Itachi quickly stood up, wiping the blood from his mouth and watched with pleasure as the man fell to the floor screaming and clawing at his groin in pain. One of the men drew his gun at Itachi with shaking hands.
The raven-haired man spat out the remains of the other officer’s cock and smiled coldly as the red liquid ran down his face and off his hair.
“Don’t come at me, o-or I'll shoot!”
“Unlike you weak bastards, I don’t need a gun to kill.”
Without another word, Itachi charged at the officer with the gun at the same time dodging the flying bullets that were going everywhere, ricocheting off the walls. Itachi attached from below: with his left leg he kicked the gun out of the frightened officer’s hand.
The cold-blooded killer’s fingers dug deep into the eye socket of the stunned man. The others could only look on with shock and horror as Itachi pulled the eyeball out of his head with a strange, gooey popping sound and played with stringy cord that was attached to the inside of the man’s skull.
The killer looked at the trinket he had snatched, considering it for a moment then he let it slip through his fingers onto the floor, bouncing away like a rubber ball. He squashed it with his foot enjoying the clear white liquid splatter underfoot.
“He’s insane! Get outta here!”
Mistake number two: Running away tends to draw the attention of the predator. Foolish cowards deserve to die, no mercy!
“No, you can’t run away! Not yet; I’m not done playing with you!” He grabbed the nearest man by the hair and slammed his face into the stone wall with all of his strength. He repeated this action again and again until the man’s face was nothing more than pulp, leaving chunks of flesh on the wall to slide to the floor with disgusting wet splats.
Three down, two more to go!
The officers clawed at the walls, breaking nails and bloodying fingertips while Itachi beat at them with the back of his fists turning them into unrecognizable chunks of well-tenderized meat, whimpering and moaning in pain. They would die, and they would suffer until they drew their final breaths.
Once he made sure they where all dead, the killer bent down to check the officers’ pockets. He found what he was looking for: keys to the prison doors. Then he swiped a pair of pants from one of the dead men, as well as a gun and a few extra rounds.
Escaping his cell easily enough he skulked in the shadows, attempting to escape from the prison. But his escape had not gone unnoticed, someone had sounded the alarm, sending guards looking everywhere and he did not escape unseen.
“There he is! Get him! Don’t let him escape!”
Itachi, realizing he was surrounded by enemies, charged the man closest to him: his first victim of many. That’s when it happened, the killer’s first murderous black out.
When Itachi awoke, he found himself in a small boat with Kisame at the rudder. He looked at himself; he was drenched in blood. He wasn’t sure how much of it was his own. He certainly didn’t feel any pain, just the buzzing in his head that told him he was coming down from an adrenaline high.
“That was In-fucking-sane!” Kisame yelled into the wind. “You really are something, Itachi!” Kisame turned around to get a quick look at his boss, and the foolish grin he had been sporting dropped from his face. “Fuck, they really did a number on you.”
“Kisame, what happened?” Itachi asked, obviously not terribly concerned with his wounds.
Kisame wasn’t listing to Itachi and he went on talking. “It would probably be a good idea if we laid low: head off to Mexico, hit up some bars and have a couple of Coronas, just chill till the excitement dies down.”
“What the hell happened, Kisame?”
“Fuck, you don’t remember?” Kisame turned around once more. “It was a blood bath; you just started killing people right and left. I mean, there was such a panic I was able to steal a boat without anyone even noticing.”
“I don’t remember…any of it.”
-ooo-
Warmth…
Heat…
Light…
Warmth came back into Itachi's body. It was indescribably wonderful. He would rather die then admit it, but he loved the warmth, he wanted nothing more than to curl in closer to it and hold it to him: never let it go... but that would show weakness.
Then the heat faded away, once more. Just a ghost of teasing siren-song.
He was awake, but his eyes remained shut. The irritating early morning scream and rattle of the train passing by overhead let him know he had at least made it to his own home. The ceiling shook dropping dust on the floor and the house shook with vibrations. Stupid train.
What did he do last night? Nothing at all, perhaps, yet remorse of that hell clawed up and down the inside of his ribs.
He desperately needed a drink, he decided. So wincing, Itachi slowly pulled himself from out of the bed. He stopped suddenly when he realized that half of his body was covered in poorly wrapped bandages. Annoyed, he tore them off with a swift pull.
That warmth, was it all just a dream? Was I so dazed that I don’t remember tending to my wounds? Not that it would be the first time, but that warmth felt so real.
Itachi walked to the bathroom and undressed himself, turning on the taps and testing the temperature. Stepping into the tub, he let the spray of semi-cold water hit his back and he watched the blood from his wounds turn the water pink and swirl away down the bathroom drain.
Once he was done washing himself, he turned off the water and wrapped a towel around himself before dressing in a black knitted turtle neck, and dark grey pants with a row of pockets on the side. He slung a matched set of shot guns over his shoulders and put a revolver in the back of his pocket, checking first to make sure that it was fully loaded.
The phone rang and lazily Itachi picked it up, and as usual, said nothing.
“Where are you? I went by your house, but no one answered.”
“Busy.”
"Ok…Um, I’m going to meet Kakashi in the Town Square in the East Side of town to get the money. I’m sure you want to come as well?" Kisame suggested, but it was more of a question than a statement. It could be hard to predict Itachi sometimes, after all.
“I’ll be there.” Itachi answered.
“Ok, I’ll see you then.”
Itachi wearily hung up the phone, walked over to the living room counter and pored himself a glass of strong whisky. Lifting the glass to his mouth, he was surprised to notice a small, golden-haired boy sitting on the edge of his mattress.
The boy started to panic, waving his small hands in a gesture that usually meant either surrender or no offense.
“I-it’s not what it looks like! I wasn’t breaking into your house or anything! It’s just when you saved m-me from those cops, a-and you left before for I could thank you. And then you fell, and then –and then- I wanted to repay you...” Naruto realized he was babbling like an idiot so he cut himself short.
“Saved … you?” Itachi said still half dazed. “Why would I save you? You’re weak. I hate weaklings; just thinking about it makes me want to end your pathetic life.”
“I don’t understand…”
The killer wasn’t about to waste another breath on the kid, so he pulled his leather coat over his shoulders and walked out the door.
“Hey! I’m not done talking to you!” Naruto shouted. “Fine bastard! You think your so high and mighty, then kill me!”
Without any sign of hesitation, Itachi pulled out the revolver, in hopes of making the boy run away in terror, more than anything. It had no affect.
“What the hell are you waiting for? Shoot me, God damnit!" Naruto grabbed the.44 Magnum revolver and direscted it towards his head. “Shoot me, you fucking bastard! I don’t deserve to live! Kill me!”
Itachi stood dumbfounded in front of the blonde boy. For some strange reason this boy reminded Itachi of that woman. The woman who stood in front of him a month earlier and was unafraid of death, making no attempt to protect her baby from him.
Something inside Naruto broke and tears suddenly spilled down the boys sun-kissed cheeks. His knees dropped out from under him sending him crashing to the floor. “Everyone I love,” he whispered, the smiling faces of Neji, Sakura, and Tenten flashed through his brain. “Every one I care for…” Naruto buried his hands in his face. “I’m a curse and I don’t deserve to live. I don’t want to live anymore.”
Itachi pulled his gun back and tucked it away in his back pocket. “You’d only be a waste of a bullet. Besides, I have no real reason to kill you.” He turned away from the boy and began to walk down the ally way when he then heard the boy call after him.
“You eyes…” The killer stopped moving. “They betray you, you know, I can tell your hurting inside just like I am.” Naruto stood up wiping away his tears on his sleeve, wiping away his weakness. “You’re a hit-man right? I want to hire you. There’s some one I need you to kill for me.”
“You? Hire me?” Itachi asked, incredulous. “You don’t have a penny to your name. How are you going to pay me?”
“I may not have money, but I think... I have something you might want…”
“Spare me the bullshit, kid. I don’t have time to waste on a worthless piece of shit like you.” Itachi started walking towards town.
“Wait! Wait, please hear me out!” Naruto called after him and when Itachi turned to look at him, he pointed to his face, “I have a tiny chip inside my skull. It’s worth—I don’t know how much—probably millions,” Naruto lied; in truth he had no clue to how much the chip, or rather the bomb, was worth, if anything.
Itachi still held his gaze at naive young boy, not saying anything.
Ok… it doesn’t look like he is buying it. A sweet drop fell from his brows. Ok, ok. Time now for plan B!
“If you do a hit for me, then I’ll do what I’m best at!”
“And what is that?”
Naruto clenched his fists and shouted, “I will clean your house, free of charge!”
That was the last straw. He had heard more than enough of this kids babble. In a flash Itachi pulled out his gun and pulled the trigger. Click
“Hold it! You should be thanking me! Your place is a goddamn pigsty!”
Angrily Itachi then pulls the trigger again in rapid procession.
Click- click- click- click.
Itachi looked at his gun in disbelief.
Blanks? Every one of them a blank? Well this has gotten interesting. The kid has some kind of luck, it seems.
“Fine, you do have balls, kid. I’ll give you that.”
“It’s Naruto—”
“It’s Sakura-chan! C-h-a-n! Sakura-chan! Get it right Naruto Ni-san!”
“But I don’t really see the point of honorifics!” Naruto said.
Sakura smiled as she walked down the hall with Naruto. “It’s a sign of respect; my mommy said that if people was more respectful, this world would be a better place,”
“It’s Naruto-kun”
“Whatever, you can come with me if you like, I'll figure out what to do with you later.”
-ooo-
“Hang the priest! Hang the priest!” The mob of hundreds chanted. “Kill the scumbag!”
Father Shino stood at the center of a wooden platform, his feet steady and firmly on the ground. His hands where tied behind his back and there was a noose was around his neck. It hadn’t yet been tightened. One man tied his feet while another flogged him severely.
Little kids and adults alike began finding rocks on the side of the rode and hurling them at the priest. Much of the mob was half-crazed at the thought of this man about to die: their faces contorted into disgusting shapes: victorious and self-satisfied. They were filthy people, with unclean hair and teeth that would have made the British Victorians look like brilliant dental surgeons. Many waved machetes or nail-studded bats, screaming and chanting curses and cuss words.
“Who are we waiting for?” Naruto said, his eyes scanning the deranged mob.
“Kisame,” Itachi told him blandly.
“Who is Kisame?”
Naruto didn’t get an answer the second time, so he turned his attention to the priest set to be hung that afternoon.
“Why do they want to kill him so badly?” Naruto asked puzzled. “He must have done something pretty bad.”
“He probably did nothing worse than find himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. That’s just how it is,” Itachi explained.
I should have left the annoying brat at home…
“People don’t like priests, and you kill what you don’t like.”
“We have to do something!” The boy cried out suddenly, eyes huge and sympathetic, his voice colored by something other then anger. With every blow they gave the priest Naruto found it harder and harder to stand still.
“What are you talking about? You’re just a kid, what can you possibly do?”
“Anything is better then standing around here, doing nothing!”
“Go on then,” Itachi replied his head gestered to the croud, annoyed that Kisame was once again making him wait. Itachi hated waiting. Maybe he should shoot Kisame and hire some new help…
“I’m going to need your help! I’ve seen your shooting! You’re amazing! In the bar you didn’t miss even once!”
Itachi ignored the boy and turned his focus on the priest. He seemed extremely composed, considering he was about to die: his back was slouched and his slanted eyes hidden by black shads looked down. It really looks like he doesn’t want to be saved…
“No…”
“No! What do you mean no?” he growled under his breath in frustration. “Forget it then, I’ll do it myself!”
Stupid kid…he doesn’t know what he is dealing with.
Naruto pushed himself through the crowd, all shoulders and elbows, but everybody was pushing everybody and the going was slow. Move out of my way!
He made it to the platform, battered and mildly bruised, and hauled himself up holding out his arms to shield the priest standing behind him.
Itachi watched, mildly amused, from the far corners of the back, his arms crossed leaning against the brick wall. When Naruto looked over the crowd to meet his gaze Itachi smirked mockingly at him, as if to tell the boy he had no chance of succeeding.
Naruto ignored him and those cold, blood-red eyes. He wanted, more than anything, to save someone. He needed to: it didn’t matter who anymore. He just wanted to be strong for once, to protect someone rather than be the one in need of protection.
“You can’t do this!” he yelled into the crowd. “This isn’t right! He did nothing wrong! Just because some one is a priest doesn’t men you should kill him!”
The crowd stopped yelling and chanting, and became silent. So very, frighteningly silent. Naruto stood still his arms spread out, his mouth set and blue eyes determined, his wheat field hair waving in the wind. What was only a few seconds in the face of the angry crowd seemed like an eternity.
“Leave me…” Shino managed to whisper. “It’s for the best.”
Surprised, Naruto turned to look at him. A rock flew from the crowd and stuck Naruto on the side of his head. The blow knocked the boy backward and he landed butt first, with his legs sprawled out. The angry mob grabbed for his ankles, pulling him into the crowd.
“Kill the kid!”
“Yeah!”
“Kill the priest lover!” they chanted. “Kill him! Hang him!”
Oh… shit!
The boy tried his best to kick the angry people away from him. All efforts were in vain as the mob began tearing into him. They pulled his legs from one direction and his arms in another. Hands grabbed for him, ripping his black tank top to shreds. People yanked his hair, even biting him; ripping the skin.
“Hang the priest lover!” With haste they tied a rope around the boy and put a sack over his head.
“Kill them!”
“On three hang them both!”
Itachi looked on as the mob carried Naruto back onto the platform and stood him up next to the priest, where they were intending to see him hanged. They tied the ropes and counted.
“One!”
The boy doesn’t matter to me. He’s small, but in a few years I might be able to sell him off for some decent cash. People always seem willing to pay good money for kids like that…
“Two!”
Boy equals cash, and cash equals power, simple.
Itachi pulled out both of his double barrel shotguns and aimed them at the ropes.
“Three!”
To be continued…