Azalea woke up, still bounded by chakra ropes made of water, the wind rushing through the air in quick motions. She quickly figured out that she was being moved and her mouth was now covered, so she began lashing around, trying to make the stranger holding her drop her.
"Hey, kid! Stop movin'!" the man shouted as he came to a sudden, skidding stop, the rest doing the same. He dropped Azalea onto the ground and turned around, facing a familiar figure.
"Let her go," the voice that would always be familiar to Azalea demanded calmly.
Itachi!
Ka chuckled and shook his head, "Nah, kid, boss'll beat our asses."
"Then we'll fight," Itachi replied, going into his battle stance as he activated his Sharingan.
Ka did the same, his men following his actions. Izu made the first move, he moved both his right foot and left foot to where he was angled at a sideways angle, holding his hands out towards the intruder as visible sound waves rang out from both them and his feet.
Itachi managed to use his chakra to at least muffle the blow the sharp sound would do to his ears.
Azalea was not as fortunate, despite her scrambling to gather up the chakra, she didn't have the time to do so before the sound waves reached her, the man being somewhere behind her. The result was her ears ringing loudly in her head with no other sounds going through. She could feel the sticky hotness of what was most likely blood come down the sides of her face and her ears hurt so much it was blinding. The Uchiha girl cried out, whimpering as her ears continued to hurt while she curled up into a ball, coughing blood. Her lungs felt compressed, as if her ribs were now smashing them down instead of protecting. It was so overwhelming that it almost caused her to pass out, but she was pouring her chakra into not doing so, her desperation taking over her logic.
Itachi, during all of this, kept his attention focused on the three men in front of him. He made some signs and formed a jutsu, which involved fire. Lots and lots of fire. He took in a deep breath and, his chest out like a proud bird, spat out multiple small but life-threatening fireballs at them. The ravenette then seemed to disappear and reappear behind the far back left man. Itachi, feeling rather provoked and determined to get Azalea, used a kunai to slit his throat and went over to the Uchiha girl, guarding her body as he tried to keep an eye on the other two men flanking him on either side.
Ka, the Uchiha-looking one, smirked and threw several shurikens at the boy, distracting him enough for the kidnapper to form his own jutsu. He made two small tornadoes made out of whirlpools of gallons of water and sent them to him.
The prodigy grabbed Azalea and jumped out of the way, running from the remaining strangers back to the village to the Hokage's office. He wasn't one for fights, despite his skillfulness. His pacifist side tried to avoid them if he can, and, not only that, he had to get Azalea to safety.
••••••
Itachi arrived at the office, setting Azalea down and forcing the glass sliding doors to open, then picked her up and went in. He shut the door and blocked it with a chair., followed by a chakra seal. The Uchiha then put Azalea down and began working on the chakra ropes, taking about a half an hour to cut through each one.
"Itachi...?" she inquired in a particularly loud voice, confused as to how she got here.
"You okay?" he replied at a normal level, to which Azalea gave him a confused look, her eyebrows furrowed together. "What?" he asked, also confused.
"I can't..." she hesitated, hoping she was forming the right words, "I can 'ear 'ou," she finally said, swallowing hard as she brought her now freed hand up to one of her ears.
Shit! That sound wave, she couldn't block it! The boy did not say anything else, knowing it would be futile to do so, instead he cut the last of the ropes off and, using the sign language all ninja learned in the academy for their jutsus, he said, "We'll go to the hospital in the morning, after we talk to the Hokage," he paused, "After we're sure that you're safe."
Azalea sniffled in reply, turning away from him. I couldn't even fight those guys off... how am I supposed to be ANBU? Or a ninja? she thought, tears going down her face.
Itachi turned Azalea around to face him and saw that she was crying. His facial expression softened and he sighed as he lifted up her head with his hand to get her to look at him. "Hey, stop that. You're strong, you were caught off guard, of course you wouldn't be able to fight those guys off. They were from the Kyüubi gang, one of the strongest there is." he signed, to which the Uchiha girl's eyes widened.
"But... that's one of the gangs my parents had to do a recon mission for!" they'd done the mission a long time ago, "Oh Kami! What if... what if it's what they're doing this mission for, I-I should've known! But how would they have known about me? Okaasan's told me to never tell anyone outside of Konoha or even in Konoha that I don't know too well about-about them. An-and why would they want me? No! I-it can't-they can't-!" she signed back, her hands flitting around in practically a blur as her realizations and her horror grew. She's taken to the signing portion of the Academy easily, finding that she enjoyed it.
Right then, the third hokage and a few ANBU came into the office, an urgent aura about them. The ANBU noticed the two and immediately apprehended them, trapping them in a chakra prison. "Hokage-sama!" Itachi exclaimed as he signed, so Azalea wouldn't feel left out, confused at the way they were being treated as of now.
"It's just Itachi and Azalea... let them go," Sarutobi commanded, raising an eyebrow at the pair. When the chakra dome was released, he questioned the two, "Why are you two here at this hour?"
Azalea had an utterly confused expression on her face as she could barely hear anything, it was like she was wearing mufflers. The Uchiha prodigy continued to sign as he spoke, him being the only one she could understand right now, thank Kami for sign language being a mandatory class, "Can you please sign? Azalea can't hear very well right now."
The five ANBU that was in the room showed surprise in their body language, there was barely any movement, but it was there, along with the hokage. "I presume this relates as to why you're in here?" he spoke, his voice laced with concern, also complying with the boy's request, looking at the girl beside him who looked... well... lost.
"Yes, uh, Azalea?"
Azalea went into mission mode, "Right... three men of the Kyüubi broke into my room tonight and kidnapped me after I attempted to fight them off. I called for Itachi just before I was knocked out. After a short time, or so it seems, I woke up and one of them was carrying me... then there was a battle and I... I can't really remember much of what happened after that. I don't remember the fight. I mean, it's all sort of fuzzy after the battle was initiated," she explained, not even bothering to speak out loud, as she knew she would not be able to pronounce hardly anything right, "Next thing I knew, I was here and everything was muffled." The girl winced at how hard it was to breathe, dried blood on the corners of her mouth. She coughed, crimson blood being spat out as she did so.
"Care to elaborate, Itachi?" the Third requested while keeping his observational eyes on the girl, making sure she wasn't about to drop.
"One of the guys did sound jutsus, he created a soundwave and, because Azalea was tied up and had just woken, she couldn't or didn't have the time to block the sound from her ears. I had to run, as these guys... they and I were too evenly matched and Azalea needed to get out of there," Itachi covered the missing holes. He turned his head to look at Azalea and noticed that there was dried blood on her skin and in her hair, free from their usual braids. She was looking at him, fear in her eyes. He knew what that fear was for. She was scared that her hearing would cause her to not be able to be a ninja. To not be an ANBU and her parents... what might've happened to them.
The hokage nodded, "Sounds like you two had a pretty interesting night... actually, we are here because of the Kyüubi gang..." he looked at Azalea and shook his head as he silently signed, "I'm... sorry, Azalea..." The man knew that the girl was smart enough to figure out why those people would go after her, even if she didn't know what her parents truly were.
A clear sob broke the silence that followed Sarutobi's own silence, the sob was followed by the sound of Azalea falling to her hands and knees, her back arched as her brain tried to process what her leader just implied. She was desperately trying to take in a deep breath, but all she could do was gasp, her gasps were loud and panicked, filled with pain.
Her theory had just been confirmed.