A Glass Of Crimson Souls

8) selfish selves

"It is one's own personal, selfish happiness that one seeks, earns, and derives from love." -Ayn Rand

Dinner at the Uchiha compound the day after Itachi had asked Miho out never happened. In fact, they hardly saw each other at all for the next two weeks. Itachi had been called out on a mission, one that consisted of an all-Uchiha platoon, and he had been appointed the leader. It seemed that the mission was an important one, seeing as Miho knew nothing of the details. She did not mind—missions were more vital than a silly, awkward relationship—and she herself had better things to keep her mind on.

Like her training at the hospital.

It was more tedious than anything, but Miho found that she was actually enjoying herself most of the time. She was not the most terribly social person, so she lingered in the back of the ICU where the patients were too incarcerated by pain to carry on a conversation.

Now, Miho was not an atrociously arrogant person, but she wasn't downright humble either.

And in situations where she was the leading diagnostician competing against people twice her age, Miho could not help but have her internal ego soar. Her uncontained smugness earned her no little reprimands, but Miho, never one to care about the thoughts of others, did not stop her uncontested diagnosis frenzy. In fact, she had so much fun—or perhaps being at the hospital was just so distracting from the unwelcome thoughts that clouded her mind when she was alone—that she was at the hospital almost all the time, only leaving it to go to her hotel room and sleep for a few hours, or eat a quick meal.

She walked out of the hospital late in the afternoon, tired but pleased with the day's work, and shouldered her bag as she headed back to her hotel. It was in moments like these where Miho could not help but miss Itachi a bit, especially when she thought back to the times where Itachi would be waiting for her outside the hospital and walk her aimlessly to lunch or home.

Eating alone was, well, rather lonely. Miho did not dare return home, though she saw her father occasionally on the streets (she ducked immediately out of the way when such a meeting occurred, feeling very foolish all the while), and her thoughts during her meals often drifted back to the intelligent and often ridiculous banter that she rather missed. And sometimes, she wondered how he was doing—it wasn't an obsessive series of thoughts, but instead the inquisitive, polite thought of a mere…friend, yes, that was it. She was certainly not obsessing. Was he eating healthily? Hopefully he wasn't just eating food pills—those were so bad for the human body over long extended time periods, and knowing Itachi, he would just down them for facilitation purposes…perhaps when he returned, she would cook him a decent meal. Soup, she supposed, was a good menu.

Miho strolled easily out into the edges of the main streets as the sun began to set in the sky, the glowing orb painting its surroundings an array of pastel pinks, purples, and royal blue. It had been quite a long day, and she was tired and equally hungry. Suppressing a yawn, she was just about to step on the streets, joining the masses, when someone caught her roughly by the shoulder and pulled her back. She retaliated immediately, her grey eyes flashing with alarm as her hand reached to the kunai stashed away in her belt. Her assailant pushed her arm to her side before she could even twist around all the way, pulling her backwards against his chest as his hand snaked to her throat quickly, his hand holding a glistening kunai at her neck.

Miho's breathing grew uneven, but she forced to keep her head, concentrating on sensing the well-concealed chakra of the person who currently held her life in the palm of his hand.

She felt her heartbeat decelerate instantly once she recognized the chakra; the hand around her throat relaxed seconds after her back muscles loosened up. She could hear a soft scoff behind her and she rolled her eyes, closing them momentarily as Itachi's hands slipped to her shoulders and rubbed them in a therapeutic manner.