Gracie Abrams is eking out a solitary existence, fighting day-in, day-out against the drain of working customer service and nursing two newborn kittens in her off time. Out on her own ever since her sister moved in with her boyfriend, the burden of...
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Before Kakashi could allow for even a single, surprised sneeze to escape his lips, Itachi's black nails flashed beneath the spare patches of light not covered by the crows. Those wrists rose from beneath the wide, sweeping swathes of his billowing cloak, patterned so familiarly with sporadic red clouds.
"Careful!" I shouted, but the words were in slow motion as I watched the dazzling hand signs depicting something I didn't want to see.
Holding two fingers perched before his lips, Itachi let out a great gust of air. Flames billowed from his mouth, spiraling outward in a curved, hive-like fashion.
"What is that?" I cried, my fingers knotting in the thin fabric of Kakashi's sweatshirt of their own accord.
I wasn't sure I could feel my toes, smushed in my worn-out moccasins. Inside shoes. I was stuck in my damn inside shoes while an exceptional jonin prodigy stood fifty feet away, blowing flames at me.
"Phoenix...Sage...Flower..." Kakashi's mutter was nearly unintelligible, but his actions were not.
He twisted, his dark eyes a brief glimpse of shine, of light, before I was torn away from my doorstep once more by his powerful arms. This time, I didn't resist. And it wasn't because I was scared.
Strangely, I wasn't scared.
Behind Kakashi's strong back, I watched Itachi's flame jutsu dissipate. His shadowy form stood up straight, a twinge of stray light catching against his headband. That gentle leaf, split so resoundingly down its middle, almost tore my heart in two.
Kakashi rappeled us to my roof, then right back down the other side. We huddled behind a few sparse shrubs outlining my neighbors' walkways. The things should really be pulled from their roots, but the landlord's lawn and care service was more brisk than actual "service."
Holding my shoulders in his gloved grip, Kakashi squeezed gently. "You need to leave. Now."
I nodded, though I felt my mouth twist. I didn't...want...to leave him. I didn't want to go anywhere. Maybe Itachi could be reasoned with, just like Rengoku had.
With a start, I nearly pitched forward, falling straight into Kakashi's lap, as I realized. "Wait. What if he's being possessed just like Rengoku was?"
But Kakashi just shook his head. "That doesn't matter right now. Itachi is...far too great a threat to try a soft approach. This is about survival. This guy—he murdered his entire clan, Gracie. He can't be reasoned with. There's a side to him that..."
My heart thumped loudly in my chest, but I bit my tongue. With Rengoku, I'd been careless. My heart had hurt to see him in pain, and Kakashi had taken the fall for me. Literally. Well-intentioned though my actions were, my recklessness had gotten Kakashi injured. I couldn't act that way again.
