I'll Wait. {Itachi Uchiha x Reader}

[VII] Hananoki Bridge

It was so quiet today... the only sounds dancing on the air were the faint chirps of birds and the rustling leaves as I sat in my room, wearing just a bathrobe after having just taken a shower. I sighed and fell down onto my pillow, only the air holding myself back from plopping onto my bed. I honestly didn't think today would be interesting as I lied face-upwards, staring at the cheap ceiling of my bedroom. This was actually one of the nicest Akatsuki bases— they never were very fancy. A lot of them were just caves— this was one of two that had actual running water, so I usually stayed here if I wasn't out. I gazed out the curtains as the trees swayed, wondering what was to come tonight.

I didn't have any luck today preoccupying myself since we were holding back on missions, and I hadn't come out since that awful breakfast. There was nothing in my room of much importance either. All I had was a simple drawn target on my wall with about 50 kunais stuck in the center. Nothing much to do except practice throwing, but due to the cramped size of the room it was quite easy to hit the middle. I sighed, groaning and standing up. I better get some fresh clothes on for when Itachi expected us to 'talk'. I only really had the Akatsuki outfit since it was all I ever wore, and I undressed, suddenly hearing a crashing as I took off the bathrobe, my head swooping over as I saw Tobi standing at the door. I was normally a calm individual but come on... I did what anyone would do. "GAHHH- TOBI! GET THE HELL OUT YOU PERV!" I quickly covered my sensitive areas with a blanket from my bed, my face red. Tobi basically looked traumatized, his goofy body language clearly just as shocked as I was— at least I knew he wasn't too much of a creep. As Tobi picked himself up he then pointed right at me, about to talk before I slammed the door and shoved my hand onto the lower part of his mask so he couldn't say anything about what happened. I narrowed my eyes. "What... what the hell are you doing here..?" I narrowed my eyes with a cold glare. Tobi then started to panic, making odd childish noises of fear and then straight up dissipated into thin air, me falling over as he did that. I grunted and then grabbed my clothes, throwing them on outside of Tobi's sight and buttoning up my dress. I didn't make too much of an effort with my outfit since this thing with Itachi wasn't very interesting to me at all. Just a plain black knee-length thing with some short sleeves.

I took a deep breath, coming to my senses as I noticed the dent I had made with Tobi's thick skull in the thin drywall. Great... today couldn't get any worse than it was right now. I then looked to the side, bending towards a mirror in the opposite, then slapped myself in the cheek. I needed to control myself... Suddenly I heard something else... there was no mistaking it. It was that obnoxiously over-the-top voice. "HEY HEY HEY! You'll NEVERRR BELIEVE what I just saw! {Y/N}'s GOT A HUMONGOUS A-" I  couldn't take it. Today was an absolute hellhole and I wanted to get out... get out of the base, get out of the presence of Tobi, and get out of this stupid situation. My feet thumped across the stone floor, and then as gently as possible, I opened the rickety door to my room, peering down the long hallway that led to the main room, and like the S-rank shinobi I was, I walked onto the ceiling with chakra control, then left so that nobody could see me as I passed by the living room. Even Pain didn't see me, since he was busy scolding Tobi not to intrude on other members. I sighed as I reached the door to the base finally, inputting my chakra signature into a dingy old sensor, then left the base, gazing out onto the fresh expanse of forest that I stood before. Well, I guessed I was going to the bridge. It was going to be such an annoyance to walk there though. I simply hoped my fear of those eyes didn't ruin this.

             ————— 6:00 PM, Sunset —————

Hananoki Bridge. It was such a beautiful place, the cherry blossoms in full bloom at this time of year. Cherry blossoms were a symbol of rebirth and fleeting vitality, since they only bloom once a year for around 2 weeks. The pink hue of the blossoming trees sprawled across the mountainous landscape, the wildflowers dotted among the grasses to the side of the path I trod upon. Pinks, yellows, blues, violets, and reds peeked up from the sea of green, and the cherry blossoms stood tall against the backdrop of a sunset painted across the skies, while the view from the cliffs below showed a marvelous dropoff to the mountain's deeply carved valley. I stopped for a second, seeing a butterfly land upon my wrist, the orange wings resting in place. This was all so... romantic. It was hard to believe this was set up by Itachi, since he was always dark and kind of depressing. The sheer amount of color and life here was astounding. I let the butterfly go as I walked forward on the path again, the luminescent sunset streaking my face with light that peeked through the cherry blossoms' branches, my ears hearing the rushing of water as I searched for the bridge. Speeding up, I walked faster until I saw a glorious waterfall towering above to the high side of the mountain, its' waters rushing down into a stream of water that the frogs seemed to play in casually, the steam's glimmering waters leading to a red, worn-looking traditional bridge with paint slowly scratching off of it, and there was Itachi, leaning on the side rail, looking into the distance, almost like he was enjoying being here. An unexpected sense of taste for the man the Akatsuki called 'emo.'

This was so awkward, and I didn't like it. I did want to approach him and speak since this was supposed to be a date, however I didn't want him looking at me with those eyes. From the incident with Itachi's wounds he didn't seem like a hostile person, but I had no idea what kind of thing provoked him. Not to mention I have seen his injuries, and his bare chest. Weird. I just sort of walked over to the other side of the bridge, looking at the waterfall, turned away from him. It was certainly pretty, and I almost started to enjoy it until those words came out...

"I'm surprised you came. I almost didn't expect it."

I felt ice-spiders crawl up my spine when I heard that deep, raspy voice again. He was so quiet that I sometimes forgot what he even sounded like. I then heard those footsteps crossing the creaky bridge, stopping next to me as I saw a hand next to my own, that didn't belong to me. He now watched the waterfall with me, his eyes not leaving the falls. However, that was when I noticed something. His irises weren't in that shade of terrifying crimson that I despised, but a calm onyx hue that was a bit sad, yet tranquil. I slowly inched my head up, looking at his face. I never really looked at his face due to my fear of the sharingan's gaze. For the first time I studied the man up close, seeing that as of this moment, he didn't look all that dangerous. His features were chiseled and he had that silky long hair of his tied back into a ponytail, long lashes, and a clean-shaven face. Some would probably call him quite handsome. It was those eyes though, they were different. Almost peaceful, but at the same time melancholic. No... this wasn't the first time I had seen him, I had just been enough of a fool to forget. This date thing had gotten me so worried that I had reverted back to that plastered on image of fear my mind glued to his true face.

Perhaps the image I had in my mind of him, and who he actually was, were more different than I had thought. It was the same butterfly feeling from that moment with the pastry. He was my age, slightly taller, and relatively normal, yet also quite sad. No wonder I had been giving him scones and sweets from the bakery. I knew already that he was like this, however my fear of the sharingan said otherwise, burying the good side. The me that felt bad for him was right. I seemed to forget, he was just a tragic person whom people cast off as dark... a bit like myself. Yet I had the same image of darkness in my head. What was he doing here? Did he simply not have anywhere to go, just like me? I thought about this in my head, then realized he had spoken to me. It was rude not to respond, after staring at him for a good minute. I nodded.

"Uh, yep. I came... What are we doing here...?"

I scratched my head, continuing to watch that azure  stream of water flow down into the river below. The whole place radiated vitality from every corner. Meanwhile Itachi also seemed to take a while to respond. Just say you asked me out, Kisame already told me. I don't know what he saw in me considering I never interacted with him, but he must have seen something.

"Is this your first time looking at my face?"

He turned his head. That caught me off-guard. Was he a mind reader? He clearly was not using the sharingan like he usually did.

"Aside from a few days ago, you have never looked me in the eye willingly until now, yet we grew up in the same village." He explained.

He was just changing the subject wasn't he? And he recognized that I never look at him directly. I shrugged. I needed a dumb excuse, considering fear of your own ally's sharingan was stupid.

"I just didn't care enough to notice you... Is this your first time lying about how you got hurt?"

I asked in a bit of a sarcastic tone. He did lie to me, according to Kisame, about how he got those wounds from a fight. I guess that makes us both liars. Itachi stopped and looked back at the falls, and so did I. It was almost as if we were talking without using our words, without using any visible language. We just both knew.

We each knew the other was a liar.

—————

Hello, and thank you so much for reading! I would just like to put a quick note to thank everyone for over 300 reads! It may seem small in comparison to other books but if you put 300 people in a room, it's really a lot, and means even more to me! This fanfiction was actually inspired by myself. I have a disorder in which one of the effects is becoming uncomfortable with direct eye contact, so that is how I came up with the story. I also think Itachi is very cute + hot :> (get you a mans who can do both) and more content will be coming soon! Thanks again!

- Author