I Want You For Myself (Sasuke/Itachi Romance)

36. The Unforgivable

~~Third Person POV~~

"Did you hear me?" Itachi waited for Akira to look up at him. She continued to sit there, huddled with her knees against her chest on the wet pavement of the road, perhaps too shocked to register what he just told her. "Akira!"

With the raise of his voice, she jumped back to reality, her startled yellow eyes finally connecting with him. The empty gray clouds rumbled quietly above them, having released their rain and rolling along lazily, still refusing to let the sun peek through. All three of them were wet, tired and frustrated knowing that they were returning with an incomplete/failed mission. Yet, at the moment, that was the least of Itachi's worries. 

"You think...I should run away?" Akira whispered incredulously. "Is that even possible? You guys are the freaking Akatsuki for crying out loud. I'm sure if Pein wanted to find me, he would be more than capable." She chuckled, seemingly at the edge of hysteria.

"You need to try," Itachi insisted calmly, his serious dark eyes boring a hole right into her as he wished she would just listen.

"You're overreacting," she retorted.

Kisame interjected, "I don't know kid, you were kind of on a fine line to begin with. You set fire to an inn, you killed our target, and possibly even left a trail right to the Akatsuki. I think Itachi's ri-."

"NO!" She shouted, standing on her two feet quickly, "I can't leave. I can't." Her voice shook unreliably as she stared at the two men who, not too long ago, she believed to be dead. "I'm sorry. I know that I fucked up really bad, but whatever I did back there I did to avenge you two. I thought something had happened. I thought...," her head fell in distress as she tried hard to figure out where this was all going. She needed to give them an answer.

"Look I'm going to go on ahead," Kisame muttered to Itachi, "I don't care what agreement you two come to, but know that, with or without her, we are going back to the hide out in 5 mins. I hope she's smart and takes your advice."

With that Kisame continued forward, giving the other two some privacy. There was a long stretch of silence, both knowing that the other was refusing to budge on their standpoint.

Itachi sighed softly looking up at the bleak sky, wondering what he was going to do with her. As he did so, Akira meekly stole a glance his way, noticing the way his wet shirt clung to every contour of his torso. He had lost his Akatsuki cloak in the flames, trying to pull her out of the grasp of her demon. She felt guilty. Not only was he soaked with no cloak, there were even tender looking, light-red areas on his arms where the flames had cooked him just enough to sting. 

"This is all my fault," she thought gloomily, her eyes shifting to a glossy, sad, Prussian blue. Without hesitating, she removed her cloak, holding it out towards Itachi. "You should cover yourself, you must be cold."

He simply stared at it for a second before turning his ever so serious eyes on her, "Is this your way of saying you're leaving the Akatsuki?"

She frowned, "Itachi, please understand...when you two came to kidnap me, you literally took me from nothing. I had nothing before this. Before the Akatsuki...before you. This is all that I have Itachi, and I'm not leaving. Now take the damn cloak, because we are heading back together."

The clarity and certainty in Akira's eyes must have said it all, because he didn't see the point in arguing anymore or trying to convince her. It was clear to him that she had made up her mind and her decision was set in stone. Itachi gently took Akira's cloak from her noticeably shaking hands, noting, despite her fearless talk, she was scared to go back.