Uchiha Rivalry (Itachi x reader)

Itachi's secret

Itachi gently rubbed my back as I let out my pain, remaining quiet as I did so. I stopped after a while and gently hugged him. "Thank you, Itachi-kun." I smile and pull away, wiping my tears on my sleeve.

"I got our money, so we can head back and train if you want or we can just rest in my room." Itachi held up the sack of money and we started walking back to the akatsuki, dropping off the money with Pein and falling asleep in Itachi's room, Itachi hanging halfway off the bed and me sleeping in a burrito of covers in Itachi's bed.
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I'm ripped out of my sleep when I don't feel Itachi next to me and I hear harsh coughing coming from Itachi's bathroom. Getting up, I see blood spots trailing from the floor right next to the bed all the way to the bathroom.

"Itachi?!" Racing to the bathroom, I find Itachi at the bathroom sink holding one hand over his eye and the other hand catching the blood coming out of his mouth.

"What happened, Itachi?" I try to comfort him, wiping the blood off his face and rubbing his back. Itachi's hand reaches for a pill on the bar, popping the small capsule in his mouth and swallowing. He took the cloth from me, wiping the rest of his face clean of the blood and looked to me.

"It's nothing you should be worried about, Nikki. You can't do anything to stop it."

"Can I at least know what's going on?"

Itachi sighed and sat me down. He sat in front of me, his hair covering his eyes. I reach out and brush the hair out of his eyes, causing him to look at me.

"Nikki, I'm sick. It's an incurable disease that is slowly killing me. The sickness flared up when I went on a mission to capture the two-tails two days ago."

"Wait...two days ago?"

"I'm sorry Nikki. You've been asleep for a few days. I couldn't allow you to get hurt when we went after the tailed beasts. I need you to save your strength for when I take you with me for something important." Itachi pats my head, fixing my hair back to his look.

"Oh, and I got you something." Itachi reaches up to his neck, taking off his necklace, and secures it around my neck. "Itachi- I can't accept this. It's your prized possession."

"I have another one. I want you to have that so that when I die, you'll always have me with you." He smiles and pokes my forehead with two of his fingers. "Let's go get some breakfast. I know you're starving." Itachi puts a duplicate of his necklace on and we walk to the kitchen, not caring if people can't tell us apart.

"There's not a lot of dango left, Itachi-kun. We should probably go out and get more some time." I looked at Itachi, a pocky stick poking out of my mouth. Itachi glanced at me before continuing to eat all of the dango. "Hn."

"Itachi we need more dango. You eat it all within a week." Deidara and Hidan sit at the table eating ramen. Hidan nods, agreeing with Deidara.

"Tobi wants some candy! Can Tobi go get candy? Please Dei-kun? Tobi wants candy!"

Deidara threw a clay candy at Tobi, making it blow up in his face. "If it'll make you shut the hell up, go do whatever. Just don't bother us anymore."

"Okay, Dei-kun!" With that, Toby takes off to who knows where, leaving Deidara, Hidan, Itachi and I to raid the kitchen.

"So what did I miss while I was gone?" I asked, twirling a pocky between my fingers before taking a bite off it.

"We had a run in with the leaf ninja; Kisame was killed in the mist territory while searching for a tailed beast with Itachi. That's pretty much it."

I bowed my head, fighting back the tears that threatened to spill from their homes. I had to be strong for Kisame. He wouldn't want me to cry.

Itachi rested his hand on my shoulder, the other hand holding the pocky I dropped in the midst of my mourning. "Kisame wouldn't want us mourning over him. He died honorably like he wanted."

I nodded, agreeing with Itachi while also understanding the underlying meaning.

Itachi doesn't want me to be sad when he's gone. He wants me to be happy, wether it be with Sasuke or not.