Uchiha Rivalry (Itachi x reader)

Mad men amongst us

Sitting beside her, I gently comb through her hair and brush the stray strands away from her face. If only I slept that peacefully anymore. Then again, this is probably the first time she's slept like this in who knows how long.

"Hm... Goodnight, Nikki." I smile at her form and leave her there for the day to do a mission.

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Nikki's p.o.v

When I awoke after my nap, I noticed all of the Akatsuki members were gone, even Itachi. I guess they all went after Naruto or something of that nature.

After stretching the sleep out of myself, I changed clothes and took the liberty to do the house chores for today, even though it's usually Konan's job.

Starting with the kitchen, I washed all of the dishes and returned them to their rightful cupboards, wiped all of the countertops down, and dusted the cobwebs away from the nooks and crannies. After cleaning the kitchen, I had myself a small snack in the living room.

While having my snack break, I start getting an uneasy feeling like someone is here, but when I search for any trace of chakra I find nothing. Even so, I'm still convinced there's someone here besides any of the akatsuki members, so I start searching the hideout for an intruder.

After 2 rounds around the building, I facepalm at myself for forgetting my sharingan. Starting in my room this time, I activate my sharingan and search the room from top to bottom.

"That's good..." a masculine voice echoed through the room, throwing me off and making it difficult to pinpoint the origin of the voice. "But not good enough." The voice resonated right next to my ear, and I found I had been immobilized in the time it took for the person to get behind me.

I was completely frozen and at the mercy of my attacker. Speaking of, a taller figure with long black hair and what looked like samurai armor stepped into my view, facing away from me.

"Do you know who I am?" The figure turned halfway towards me, their face being revealed as an older man with dark eyes. He resembled Itachi a lot. Maybe he's a relative?

"I have no idea who you are." The man gave a wry smile to my reply, expecting that to be my answer. "You will know me now. I am Madara Uchiha. You need know nothing more before I kill you."

The man steps closer to me, his eyes staring right through me as everything around me disappears and I'm sent into what looks like a battlefield.

Genjutsu
Blood covers the area, and bodies are piled everywhere; some are in taller piles than others like they were being prepared to be burned. Behind me there was a pole, about 3 feet in diameter, jutting from the ground, the man from before was a few steps away from it. Madara grins at me, beginning to march his way to me.

I was paralyzed by fear with each step the older Uchiha took towards me. What could I do? This was his world and I was just an intruder inside of it, not to mention he was more powerful than I could imagine. I had no say in what happened to me here.

"What's wrong little Uchiha? Too scared to run or fight?" Madara stopped in his tracks right in front of my frozen body, his hand reaching down and grabbing hold of my shirt collar and lifting me up to his height.

"What a shame. I thought you'd be a fun fight." With what power I had, I signed a fire breath jutsu and breathed the flames to his face in an attempt to make him let go, but all I got in response was a maniacal laugh.

"You lack power, but your form reminds me of Itachi's. Just for that I'll end your life quickly." The man grinned and threw me at the pole, which I now noticed has a spike pointed right at me. The only thought that came to mind as I collided with the spiked pole was, I'm sorry Itachi. I'm too weak to be called an Uchiha.

As my body hit the pole, I ghasped as the air was forced from my lungs. I was just hanging on the pole now, my vision going in and out and pain searing through me as I hack up blood.

Somewhere in the distance, I can swear I hear Itachi's voice, and I think Madara hears it too wherever he went.

"... you bastard! There was no reason to kill her!"
There were some inaudible bits like there was a fight going on, then I hear footsteps behind me but I can't see my surroundings due to so much bloodloss.

Someone starts pulling me off the spike and instantly stop from all the yelling I was doing from the pain.

"I'm sorry, Nikki, this was my fault. I should've never left you alone with him there. I'll get you out of here. I promise."

The rest of the spike in front of me was broken off and I was gently pulled off the skewer and carried in Itachi's arms. He grasped my hand firmly, making sure I was still alive by telling me to keep a firm grip on his hand in which I did. I could've swore I heard a bone break but Itachi never made a sound.

"I won't lose you again."

Itachi repeated this to himself more than to me as he took me to some unknown place. I can't tell where we arw but we aren't in the akatsuki hideout anymore. We must be in a nearbg village.

"You'll hate me for this, but the leaf ninja are ahead and I'm going to have them heal you. I don't know if they'll attack me so I'm going to have to let you down here and watch from afar." He sets me down on what feels like a bed and I can hear muffled voices and his footsteps leaving. Not soon after he leaves lighter footsteps run off somewhere and return with three more sets of footsteps.

"Kakashi-sensei, this girl looks bad!"
I knew that voice anywhere: Naruto.

"I know. Sakura, try your best to heal what you can and we will interrogate her when she awakens." Kakashi.

A few moments later, the pain ebbs away and I can see again. As my vision clears, I can see the pinkette Sakura hovering over me, Naruto to my left and Kakashi standing behind Naruto. His eyes lock with mine and he give a Kakashi smile as a greeting.

"I see you are awake." Kakashi pushes Naruto out of the way and sits beside me as I sit up.

"I don't know how I got here. The last thing I remember was I got trapped in a genjutsu."

Kakashi watched my every move as I looked myself over and saw the huge wound from being impaled in the genjutsu.

"I don't know what happened to you, but we will protect you."

"That's fine Kakashi. I can take care of myself." The man's eyes widened.

"You know me?"

"Why yes, you don't remember me from the anbu teams?" Kakashi turned my shoulder towards him and smiled at the anbu tattoo he was faced with.

"I remember now. So it seems like your mission is going good since I barely recognized you. You look more like Itachi when we were on the anbu team." He smiles and pats my head.

"You should be fine to leave whenever you're ready. I'm sure you have something to do besides hang around us. Itachi must be getting impatient by now and I'm sure Naruto will notice his presence soon."

"Yes, I do. Thank you Kakashi for everything." I bowed to him and left the building, finding Itachi in a nearby alley. He picked me up and carried me back to the hideout.

"He remembers us, Itachi." I smile at him as he looks ahead and hums a reply.

"He didn't threaten you, did he?"

I shook my head. "Nowhere close. He covered for me when I left the village to come after you. He's wishing me luck with everything I do."

"Hn." Itachi pokes my forehead and looks ahead once again. "Tomorrow is the day, Nikki. Sasuke will come to kill me, but maybe you can sway him if you're there. Also, I need you to rest until we get where we're going. I need your strength up."

I watched Itachi's eyes carefully. I knew something was wrong. "Itachi, you're nearly blind. You can't fight Sasuke like this or you'll die."

"I know, but I have to try. Rest now."

I couldn't sway the older Uchiha, but I understood his position. As I rested I thought to myself, if I sense anything going wrong I'm stepping in. No ifs, ands, or buts.