Weapons (Itachi romance)

Prologue

"Otou-chan... where are we going?" the two-year-old girl asked, blinking her fuchsia eyes up at the old man. She gave a loose cough, dragging her heels slightly as he pulled her along at a quick pace. Her skinny frame was draped loosely in a large t-shirt and too-big pants, which she tripped on occasionally. Her father took no notice of this, gripping her hand, showing no sign of recognition as the sky opened up and poured rain down on everything.

The black-haired girl sneezed, pulling on her father's hand weakly. "Okaa-san and Ming-jiji said I wasn't to get cold, or I would get ill again."

Her father looked back at her with an unreadable expression, "We're almost there."

After a few more minutes, they reached a large, ominous-looking building, with stone pillars along the front and a grey stone canopy, shielding a tall, ornately-carved oak door. Her father pulled her through this door, then sat her down on something cold and high up, in a cold, dark room. She felt something wrap around her wrists, holding them apart from each other, then binding them above her head. The same thing happened at her ankles, and the girl mewled, trying to move, but unable.

"Otou-san... what's going on?" her father stood beside her, looking downwards at her, and made some mysterious movements with his hands, before many flames lit up, one after the other, in a circle around them.

Her father whispered a few unfamiliar words, and a large mass of purple-silver energy made itself known, writhing and puffing in a gas-like form at the ceiling.

"Otou-san, I... I'm scared..."

The man just ignored her, making more hand-seals, before pulling all of the silvery energy down from the air. He placed his glowing hand onto her forehead, and a mess of spiralling patterns worked down from her head over her whole body as she screamed in pain.

"It burns!! Otou-san, it burns! Make it stop!"

She writhed on the stone table, but the symbols continued working down her skin. Her face screwed up, and she became lost in a world of pain, the feeling of being burnt alive too much for her.

The door suddenly crashed open, and a man with spiky blonde hair, along with the girl's mother, appeared. It was clear the girl's mother was murderously angry; she was glowing with furious orange-red chakra that formed a cloak around her body, and her pink-red hair was whipping wildly around her face. Angry tears rolled down her cheeks, seeing her daughter writhing and screaming in pain.

"What are you doing to her?!! You bastard!" the woman roared, the chakra bubbling and slowly forming into a second tail. The blonde man quickly sprang into action, placing a paper-seal quickly on the woman's forehead, then attacking the dark-haired man. He allowed himself to get thrown back.

"Ha! So that's the power of Konoha's Yondaime Hokage-!" the sneering tone cut off as he realised that the very person he had been mocking was now behind him, pressing a kunai to his throat. Minato's expression was steely, in a frown at this man for doing something like this to his own daughter.

"You're coming with me."

* * *

Two ANBU shinobi guarded the prisoner, while the Yondaime spoke with the woman whose daughter he had saved. He regarded her with slight sadness; he had grown fond of the woman and her daughter.

"He'll be dealt with as soon as we get back to Konohagakure." he said, eyes moving to the unconscious girl in the woman's arms. "I'm sorry we didn't get there faster, Kushina-san."

"It's not your fault, Minato-san." Kushina said, watching as her daughter stirred slightly, then winced, and buried her face into her mother's warmth. She was still covered in those purple symbols, and her hair was seeming to grow even as they watched her. "He had spoken about making her into such a weapon, but... I didn't want to believe that he would truly do it."