Designed For War...But Not Meant For It (Itachi Uchiha Story) Info.

Chapter 19.

She couldn’t believe what she’d just heard; it couldn’t be right.

All this time she had been wanting to talk about her situation to Itachi; about what she’d been through. There had been a connection there she had felt from the start when they first met, and it had made her feel so comfortable in his presence. It was how she had felt ready enough to finally tell her story. She had thought he would understand once she did so, and afterwards help her through it. But now…after what he’d said…Kiken was beginning to think she’d been utterly wrong.

She knew now that it was her power they had been coming after all along. There was no scroll; they just hadn’t realised that fact to begin with. No one had. Anyone who had known had died back during the war. The reason she had chosen to help out was because she had thought it was nothing to do with her; that she could accept seeing Hoshi valley again and it would help her overall. Though that wasn’t how things seemed at the moment—it was going completely the opposite way.

It was the only reason Itachi would apologise; but then again, Kiken couldn’t really blame him. Regardless of who he worked for or what he had to do, she knew they still had a connection; that they had so many similarities. But he had an obligation. He had started working for the Akatsuki long before she had ever come along, and that meant he would automatically choose them over her. He might not want to—and she could see from the look on his face and the way he was acting that he didn’t want to—but that meant nothing now. He was still going to do it, and that meant only one thing for Kiken.

Reliving the past.

After all, she was the power they were after and that they wanted in their group. They had gone to so much effort to get this far, and now that they’d find out they’d had it all along without realising; Pein would be more determined than ever to make sure Kiken stayed with them. She knew their methods; of how they recruited members they wanted into the Akatsuki, and if she said she didn’t want to...then they wouldn’t let her get away. They’d keep chasing after her until they caught her and dragged her back. The people she had thought she could be friends with would turn out to be the worst thing possible.

It would be just like last time. Like it always had been from her childhood. Everyone wanting to control her and use her power for what they wanted, never taking her opinion or free will into account. Pure, raw terror began to rise within Kiken at the realisation that after getting to know the Akatsuki she was going to be controlled by them, her heartbeat increased suddenly, slamming against her ribcage and causing her entire body to tense up. She had trusted Itachi. He meant so much to her. But she couldn’t be controlled again. Not when she had been through that war. Not when she had seen what she had and done what she had.

Things weren’t exactly made any better considering where she was sitting.

All she could do was stare at Itachi in horror, hoping; praying that she’d gotten it wrong. But as Itachi sighed, Kiken knew it was true. This was reality, and there was nothing she could do to change it. With her emotion rising in her throat, stopping her from being unable to properly speak, she shook her head desperately, forcing the tears back as her eyes welled up, and managing to whisper only a,

“No,”

She stood and sprinted from the area, not looking back once, leaving Itachi sitting behind her, staring after her in concern and confusion.     

He didn’t know what was wrong. He had been saying sorry because he couldn’t even imagine what Kiken must have been through, because he had asked her to return to the place where so much had gone wrong in her life without knowing any of her story. So why had she run off? Maybe she needed some space; it was why she had left the battlefield to begin with, and now she had just told Itachi what she had done—

But then it hit him.

Seifu had made Kiken fight in the battles he wanted her to; made her participate in the war. Everything she had done had been planned by him and controlled by him; she had no choice and no voice to speak against his tyranny. It had extended when she fought in the war, with everyone and anyone fighting to control her, wanting to use her power for their own gain. Kiken had been afraid of other people dominating over her since her childhood, and though she had been living on her own, doing what she wanted, it was still imprinted on her mind, no matter how hard she tried to get rid of it. When Itachi had apologised, she had thought something different to what he had really meant.

Now she thought the Akatsuki were going to control her; just like everyone else had done.

With that thought, Itachi instantly jumped to his feet and chased after her, following the tracks she had left behind. Frowning desperately as he noticed them, he gritted his teeth; Kiken was skilled at stealth; to see how easily she was leaving tracks meant she was afraid, and incredibly so. Knowing it was him who had been the one to make her that way, he sped up, calling her name over and over. Saying he needed to explain, he tried to reason with her—wherever she was—to get her to halt; to listen to him.

But Kiken wasn’t about to stop; not now. She had tried to be open-minded about this kind of thing before; force herself to listen just in case. It had never worked, though; no one had been able to justify themselves and had only captured her and forced her to fight. Things might be different now it was Itachi behind her; but she couldn’t go back. Her fear was too great for that, and she kept on running. Where she was going, she didn’t know, but she had to get away. Out of the village, out of the area...out of the valley entirely. Only then would Kiken feel safe enough to stop for a while.

This place just made her feel so vulnerable.

The rest of the Akatsuki halted instantly upon hearing Itachi's shouts, looking in the direction they had come from. Glancing at each other, their eyes narrowed at the implications of what it meant; and it they all felt something wasn’t right. Itachi wasn’t exactly the kind to shout; but the fact that he had meant there was something going on, and he had been shouting Kiken's name too; the idea that there might be some kind of fighting going on made Pein make a quick decision, ordering everyone to leave the scroll for the moment and to find Itachi. What the problem was, they didn’t know. But they knew for certain Itachi did.

Kiken was leaving tracks, that much was true; but they were unpredictable; irregular. Even with her fear she was managing to confuse him, and with the speed she was running at, Itachi doubted he would be able to find her any time soon. He wasn’t about to stop, however; not when he knew how she had perceived the situation. With how he cared about her, he couldn’t just let this happen. As if she hadn’t been through enough already.

Then Pein abruptly arrived through the trees, having caught up with him, and questioning immediately as to what was wrong, Itachi confessed Kiken had disappeared. Though Pein looked away for a moment, frowning at this news, he considered everything that had happened and stated that she had practically finished her job; there wasn’t really much more she could do to help them, when Itachi cut in, interrupting Pein mid-sentence,

“No; you don’t understand. She’s the power, Leader-sama. Not a scroll. Kiken was the weapon—it’s why she survived when no one else did.”

But at that news....it was a whole different ball game.