Susurrus [Itachi x OC]

6: Wounds

Once things are said and done, I'm laying in the bed with Itachi very gently cradling my naked—and quite sore—body against his side with his strong arms. His Akatsuki cloak lies on the floor next to his shirt and sandals, though he'd slipped back into his pants in case someone entered who shouldn't.

"Tani?" He asks in a whisper.

"Yeah?"

"I'm glad I got your consent, but I feel awful about how it had to happen."

"It doesn't count, Itachi."

His naked, muscular, seemingly marble-sculpted torso stiffens beside me. "What do you mean?"

"These... well, circumstances, made that happen under duress." I brush stray locks of long, sweaty black hair out of my eyes. "I'd always told myself that if it ever were to happen, I'd want the circumstances to be just right, y'know?"

Itachi gently kisses the top of my head. "I do understand," he murmurs. "And I'm sorry the first time didn't happen under better circumstances."

"Don't kiss me." My aggressive voice raises just slightly in volume. "I... Just don't, Itachi."

Part of me hopes you never do it again. The other part? Well, I'm not gonna think about that.

"Alright," he says quietly. "I won't."

I press my head more firmly against his chest, the steady rhythm of his heart seeming to relax and soothe me.

That is until I hear the door opening.

"Hit me, Itachi!" I hiss damn near inaudibly. "Hit me before someone sees!"

"Are you—?"

"Yes, I'm sure. Now just fucking do it!"

Itachi's face is contorted with pain and strife as he raises his fist. I squeeze my eyes shut, unwilling to see his pained face any longer.

The muscular shinobi strikes me exactly twice as the door fully opens: once in the face for visible proof, and once in the gut to knock the wind out of me, and, hence, silencing me. I let out a pained cough as Itachi stands up, shoving me away from him.

Pain seemingly glides across the floor like a ghost, staring daggers at my gut-clutching and coughing form.

"Has it been done, Itachi?" He eyes his subordinate suspiciously.

"It has." Itachi's voice is cold enough to send shivers down my spine.

"Has she been broken in?"

"Well enough, I suppose, sir."

"Good, good." I can feel his powerful eyes honing on my naked form. "Bring her into the lab so Zetsu can clean her up."

Itachi nods. "Yes sir. What am I to do with her afterward?"

"Bring her to me."

~*~

With a firm, guiding hand on my lower back, Itachi guides me through a torch-lit maze of hallways. The walls—made of a swirled dark orange stone—radiate potently negative energy around me.

Negative but familiar energy.

My cheek throbs, each pulse of pain radiating into my bones.

Fuck he's got a hard punch!

"Itachi, where exactly are we?"

I look up to see his face harden. "We're at a hideout of Orochimaru's."

As my eyes widen in shock, a sudden wave of dizziness overtakes me. The walls around me sway and whirl around me. My knees buckle underneath me, and for a moment, I think I'm going to collapse to the ground when Itachi—quicker than a flash of lightning—scoops me up into his arms bridal-style.

"Tani!" His face remains stoic, but his eyes overflow with worry. "Tani, are you alright?"

I shake my head. "N... Nuh..."

"I got you." Itachi presses my head to his chest before bolting down the hallway. "I got you."

Everything seems to happen in a blurry haze. One minute I'm warm, pressed too tightly against Itachi's chest, and the next minute I'm ripped from Itachi's arms—I cry out at the sensation of a strange set of hands on my body—and a cold metal table is abruptly pressing against my back. An unnatural heat pulses in gentle waves through my body, as though I'm being gently baptized by the purest form of fire itself.

I can't scream even if I want to. The delirium in me is too much, spinning the world through my eyes, scrambling the neurons in my brain, and the heat coursing through me feels like it's burned my vocal cords to ashes.

Bits and pieces of sentences flow into my ears, my muddled brain unable to distinguish who's speaking.

"Body... rejecting..."

"Two Tails... missing..."

"She's... Dying... Itachi... I'm... sorry..."

Groaning loudly at the fire coursing through my veins, I painfully cry out—with the last of my energy—to the one person I can think of through my delirium.

"T-Tachi...!"

As an aggressive wave of heat suddenly floods throughout my body, my eyes shut, and I pass out.

~*~

"Akatani?" A soft, high-pitched voice asks worriedly. "AKATANI?!"

My iron-heavy eyelids open to see an evergreen forest, the sun struggling to send its rays of light through the gaps in the leaves.

I slowly look up to see Matatabi in her true form, her extremely large tail worriedly swishing back and forth.

"You are okay!" With a massive paw, she scoops me up and, for a moment, presses me close to her chest. Dizziness re-enters my head, making what feels to be a long-term home there.

Maybe it's the sudden change in altitude, maybe it's something else. Who knows? All I know is that I don't.

This... this must... must be... what... what it's like... what it's like... to... to... to feel loved...

"Akatani, say something!" She pleads, her voice sounding vaguely like a kitten's mewl.

"I......" My voice feels unfamiliar and rough, as though I've never used my vocal cords in my life. I can hardly string thoughts together, never mind full sentences. "I... I think... I think... I think I'm dying, Tabi."

"Dying?! What is making you that, sweet girl?!"

I lay down in Matatabi's large paw, staring up at her worried face. Seeing her feels so familiar, yet so strange simultaneously.

"Something... stuff... things... not... right..." The fiery blue cat swirls like a top in my vision. My eyes are finally feeling like my head. "Itachi... sex... consent... never... wanted... to... happen... like... that..."

"Oh, Akatani!"

"Sorry... everything... love... you ..."

One minute I'm lying on Matatabi's paw.

And in the next, I'm hurtling towards the forest floor like a comet.