Love Triangle: Kakashi vs. Genma

71 | This Is A Problem

"Oh, damn, damn! This is not good!" [Y/N] yelled as she raced through the trees. Between her stomach doing flips, the enemy tailing her, and the fact that she couldn't even make eye contact with them for her safety, she really had found herself in a tight spot.

"Not good, indeed. Come on, [Y/N], I don't want to hurt you. I just can't let you go with that information." The enemy called to her.

"Well, you're going to have to hurt me to get it! So you might as well do it or back off!" She yelled back, searching for a place to hide. She would not fair well in a fight right now. Her best option was to disappear.

She could hear him sigh loudly behind her and she knew what he was feeling. She'd heard that sound so many times before. He wasn't angry; Rather, he was getting impatient. It was a sound that told her to stop acting childish and to just listen to him. Ironic, since Itachi was younger than her.

"[Y/N], please. Just give me the scroll so that I can let you go."

"You'll take it from my dead hands if you want it!"

"I won't kill you. I was never meant to run into you. This was supposed to be taken care of while Jiraiya still had this information. That's what that poison was supposed to do, but apparently you got that food."

"Is that what made me sick? Seriously?" She called, eyes darting around, desperately searching for somewhere to hide.

"Well you weren't supposed to eat it. It must've gotten mixed up... Still, I'm surprised it didn't kill you already. That dose was meant to render Jiraiya unconscious. A dose like should've been lethal to someone so much smaller than he is."

"Slacking on the job? That's not like you Itachi!" [Y/N] yelled behind her, taunting him. She finally dropped down to the ground and concealed herself as best she could.

"Come on Itachi, stop playing with her! Just let me kill her! We've got more important things to do!" She heard Kisame's voice behind her now too. That huge sword he lugged around certainly made him slow, so he was just now catching up to her and Itachi.

"No, Kisame. We are too close to the border now. If we kill her and word gets back to the Hidden Leaf, a war will surely ensue. We don't need that kind of thing now. The Akatsuki would not benefit." Itachi sounded much closer now. Too close for comfort. "Kisame, go back to the village. Find our target. I'll deal with this."

[Y/N] heard Kisame grunt, no doubt frustrated that he lugged that sword all this way only to be turned around. "Sure thing, Itachi. Just make sure that you see it through."

After a few minutes, [Y/N] stilled her breathing to try and sense Itachi's position. She concealed her own chakra from him, but it was difficult. She was weary now and Itachi was much harder to fool.

"[Y/N], I know where you're at." He called. Damn. What was she supposed to do now?

"Don't make this any harder than it needs to be. I don't want to fight you." He said again, still coming closer. [Y/N]'s breath hitched and she didn't dare move.

"[Y/N], I won't ask again." Itachi called, standing a mere meter from her. He turned and faced her direction, staring straight at her. "Get out of there."

[Y/N] turned and started running—straight into Itachi. It had been a shadow clone in front of her, calling to her. He knew all along and tricked her.

His arms wrapped around her and she shut her eyes tightly. He couldn't use his sharingan on her if he couldn't make eye contact with her. She wiggled around, trying to free herself.

"Please, stop moving so much. I told you, I don't want to hurt you."

"Itachi... Let me go!"

"Look at me."

"You're crazy!"

"Look at me now."

The commandeering tone he used made her freeze. She'd never heard Itachi's voice sound so cold before. She'd never known this side of him. She found herself opening her eyes slowly, staring warily at the ground.

She could make out Itachi's cloak, the outlines of the red clouds on it barely visible in her line of sight. His arms were still tight around her, holding her still. Her eyes made their way slowly up his form, to his face. Finally, she dared look into his eyes.

His sharingan was not activated and she was looking into his normal eyes. For a moment, his eyes were something of comfort and familiarity. She'd looked into them a hundred times before when they trained together, worked together. Itachi had been one of her best friends.

He stared back at her, seemingly emotionless. They stayed that way for a mere moment, daring to let the nostalgia eat away at them. She remembered serving in ANBU alongside him. They used to joke together about how harsh their squad leader Kakashi was (ironic, now that she thought about it—Kakashi had become so precious to her).

But the moment was short and Itachi apparently remembered that he was here to meet a goal, one not of reminiscing. The moment he activated his sharingan, [Y/N] disappeared from his grasp. Itachi chuckled. "A shadow clone. I should've known."

Above him on a tree branch, the real [Y/N] had just finished reading the contents of Jiraiya's scroll. Her distraction had worked! Then she snapped her fingers together, using her lightning nature to send the scroll up in flames. Itachi looked up completely unfazed, watching the paper burn with his sharingan. Since when does she know how to use the lightning nature?

Itachi sighed, still staring up at her. "You just had to go and read it, didn't you? Now I have to deal with you."

[Y/N] grinned. "Itachi, when will you learn? You don't deal with me. You fall before me."

She jumped down, feet first, aiming for Itachi's head. He stepped back but was shocked when the ground beneath him crumbled. She enhanced her strength with her chakra, like Tsunade does. That fall was never meant to hit him. It was meant to knock him around.

[Y/N] regained her stance and flung a kunai at Itachi, which he easily dodged. She made sure to not look at his sharingan, something she was thankful she'd practiced before him and even with Kakashi. Those eyes were the devil when used against you.

"You have certainly improved over the years, [Y/N]. But I assure you, this will not be an easy fight for you." Itachi spoke, standing back up as though nothing had happened.

[Y/N] glared at him. She already knew it wouldn't be easy. But she had no choice but to fight. Itachi would surely kill her now if she were caught. But for her village, she was ready.