Illicit (Itachi Uchiha Love Story) *REWRITING*

Chapter 44

"Itachi, what are you doing here?" Asuma asked coldly. "What's going on here?"

Itachi and I were both at loss for words. 

Where do I start? What do I say?

Asuma looked at me directly. 

"What's going on, Kasumi?"

"I...I"

"Well?"

"He's helping me, Asuma," I finally regained my ability to speak.

Asuma and Itachi both stayed silent.

"Gin was targeting me for months and Itachi was helping me out with it. He's the reason why I've been safe from Gin," I continued.

"What do you mean he's helping you? You're working with Itachi?" Asuma pressed. "How could you work with him after what happened weeks ago?"

I was about to reply, but then he cut me off.

"No, let me correct myself. How can you work with him after what he did to his clan?" Asuma said.

"No, I'm not working with him Asuma and I mean exactly what I said. He was protecting me from Tsuyoshi Watanabe and Gin," I replied.

"Kasumi, I don't know what's going on, but it sure sounds like you've become a traitor to the village," 

"I'm not a traitor!" I retort. "Fine, you want to know the truth? Well here's the truth. Itachi and I are in a relationship and he's been protecting me because he made a promise to Shisui he would!"

Asuma was speechless and I could tell Itachi wasn't happy that I just outed our relationship.

Stupid me and my thin patience. I need to control that.

"Is this true?" Asuma turned to Itachi, looking at him with disgust. 

Itachi nodded.

Asuma looked at us, at loss for words.

"I suggest you get out of here, Itachi," Asuma threatened.

Itachi knew how to pick his battles, so he left. Now I had to deal with my pissed-off brother.

"You know what? I don't want to talk about this right now. We need to get you back to the village's hospital so you can heal. We'll talk about this after," Asuma said, angrily.

He escorted me back home without a word and now it was starting to worry me. I've never seen my brother snap before and I didn't want to be the first one to witness it. 

Since Tsunade was here, I was healed pretty quickly and I made my report to her. I reported that I got in a fight with Gin and Tsuyoshi and that I was able to take them both down. She, of course, lectured me for being reckless but was proud that I was able to take them both down. I didn't tell her that I wasn't the one who took care of Tsuyoshi though.

I made it back home and Asuma was sitting on my couch. He reminded me of Dad when I came home late from sneaking out back when I was sixteen. This is exactly what Dad did, but I was able to get off the hook more easily then.

"How could you do this Kasumi? You know what he did to Sasuke, his clan, and how he's after Naruto," Asuma said as soon as I walked in.

"You don't think I felt guilty about this? I couldn't bring myself to talk to you or Dad when this first happened!" I retort.

"You can't see him anymore. I'm forbidding it,"

"You don't get to tell me what to do. I'm going to continue being with him because I'm in love with him,"

"He's manipulating you, Kasumi. Don't you see that? He's using you to get information on the village. How did this even start?" 

I explained to him exactly how it happened. Orochimaru kidnapping me after that mission, Itachi saving me, me staying at the Akatsuki base until it was safe for me to return, and me letting him stay here until he was healed. 

Asuma was livid now.

"Do you actually think he's in love with you? Are you that deluded?" Asuma stood up. "I'm sorry, but you can't see him anymore - actually no, I'm not sorry. You need to understand that you can't be with him. I won't allow you to see him,"

"I'm not listening to you, Asuma. He's the only reason why I'm happy now and the only reason why I was safe. Don't you see that if he hadn't shown up, Orochimaru would've used me against Dad?"

"I'm sure Dad would prefer that happening over this. God, I can't even imagine how he'd react to this," Asuma crossed his arms.

"I'm staying with Itachi and that's final. Stay the hell out of my love life. I haven't done anything wrong since I've been seeing him. I haven't been telling him any critical information about the village or anything,"

"Don't you remember why you hated him? He killed your best friend," Asuma reminded me. "It's an insult to him that you're dating his killer. Just imagine how he would feel about it,"

"I got over that because I found out the truth. Itachi didn't even kill Shisui, Shisui killed himself over some disputes in the Uchiha clan. People only said that because they wanted to blame someone," I retort.

"Great, not only is he manipulating you but now he has you believing lies,"

"And for your information, Shisui would probably want us to be together if he told Itachi to keep me from harm!"

Asuma shut his eyes and took a breath.

He stopped yelling and was now speaking calmly.

"You're lucky I didn't tell Lady Tsunade about you two. I could've told her that you've been with him this whole time, but no. I care about you too much to let you ruin your life,"

"Where are you going with this? Make your point already," I interrupted.

"If you don't end things with him, I will tell her. You know exactly what will happen if you don't."

I widened my eyes with shock.

"Y-You wouldn't..."

"I would and it's not because I'm trying to keep you from dating. It's because I can't let you get yourself hurt by this criminal. You clearly can't see that he's just using you and he'll probably kill you too when he's done with you,"

Asuma continued speaking. "So, if you end things with Itachi right now, I'll keep quiet about this whole thing and we'll pretend it didn't happen."

My eyes started to water. "I-I can't do that Asuma..."

He looked at me without a word.

"You don't understand how much I love him. He means everything to me. He's made me so much happier and I can see myself...spending the rest of my life with him,"

"I'm sorry, but I'm sticking by what I said."

Tears started streaming down my cheeks.

"F-Fine, but I hope you know I won't be able to forgive you for this. So, as of now, you no longer have a sister."

He looked at me with shock now.

"Get out of my house."

He left and I slammed the door shut.

I sat down and cried.

How could he do this to me?