That night, I sat anxiously as I awaited the Uchiha's arrival in my small room.
Curled up on my bed with my back against the wall, I hugged my legs to my chest as I stared at the door, just waiting for it to open.
This can't be happening, I thought to myself, over and over. There must be something else we have to do.
God knows how long I sat there, waiting for the moment of truth. But it must have been long enough for me to be fully drained of all emotion by the time Sasuke swung by.
Eyes glazed over and heart rate dropping to a slow, steady beat, I heard the door open before I visually processed it. Lo and behold, in walked Sasuke, dressed up all high and mighty in his uniform. His face was expressionless as he shut the door tight behind himself, and stood at the entrance of my room as he apprehended my sorrowful state.
"You look like death."
I could only stare blankly at him.
"What are you doing here?" I asked concisely, deciding that if I was going to get an answer I might as well get it now. "What do you want?"
Sasuke closed his eyes as if in deep thought, and shook his head.
"Don't... just- don't talk," he said, opening his eyes and looking away. He began to unbutton his coat, and I watched mournfully as he tossed it to the ground before making his way towards my bed.
"Do you really have to do this?" I quipped dolefully, mind slowly processing the Uchiha's actions. He screwed his eyes shut as if in pain, and turned around mid-strut towards me.
"I said shut up," he hissed, walking over to the light switch and flicking it off. I barely managed a gasp as the room was plunged into darkness, still numb from the realisation of what was going to happen. My breathing started to become heavy and audible, which wasn't welcomed by the Uchiha much.
I closed my eyes as I felt him brush against me, coming to terms with myself and my situation.
"Lie down," he ordered, yanking me by the arm and pulling me away from the wall. Wordlessly, I complied, and lay down as flat as I could on the bed. It creaked as I felt Sasuke's weight move on top of me, and I clenched my hands into fists at my side as I felt him straddle my hips.
"So this is how it is, huh?"
After a moment of silence, Sasuke spoke to me, and I opened my eyes. My sight adjusted to being in the dark, and I could just make out his outline above me.
"No fight? No, "fuck off, you son of a bitch"?"
I merely blinked at him.
"What's the point?" I said monotonously. The Uchiha scoffed and shook his head, placing his hands on my belly.
"You really are something," he sneered. "Every other time you decide to kick up a fuss. Could it be that you secretly want me?"
I felt myself begin to shake with indignation at the Uchiha's brash remark.
"You... you..."
That was all I could manage as I felt him run his hands across my body, feeling every bend and crevice, accompanied by a small "hn."
"You annoy me," he said loudly. "I don't want to do this."
"Neither do I, genius."
"But they'll be checking your sheets tomorrow morning... so..."
I breathed a small sigh of relief as I felt the Uchiha swing his legs up and off of me, the light thump of his feet on the floor being the most reassuring thing I had ever heard in my life. Immediately, I sat up straight, only to find my throat in his tight grip.
"Argh- what are you-?!"
Feeling my throat beginning to constrict under the Uchiha's iron grip, I choked as he held me so that I was on my knees and my dress was beginning to lift up with me. I let out a cry as a sharp pain cut across my upper thigh, and moments later, I felt what I knew to be blood start to drip down my leg.
Sasuke relinquished his grip on me and I dropped onto the bed, huffing for breath as I struggled to deal with the stinging laceration in my leg, rubbing my hand over the wound to judge how bad the bleeding was. I had barely managed to locate the wound when the Uchiha snatched my hand away from my leg, crushing my wrist in his hold.
I cried out once more as he threw me down onto the bedding, and held me down by both arms with a snarl.
"Don't get it on your hands, doofus," he spat, still pushing down on my wrists. "Get it on your sheets, I don't care where. If you have any on your hands, wash it off. The cut isn't too deep, so it should be barely noticeable by tomorrow. Wipe off any excess blood on your leg with the sheets, and make sure you shower to get rid of all of it. When they come in the morning, act like we did it. Throw a fit, burst into tears, curse my name, I don't care- just make it believable. This isn't for your sake- this is for mine. I'll get to it eventually, but honestly, I can't even stomach the thought of your face in broad daylight, let alone procreating with you."
I let out a gasp of relief when he removed himself from me and the pain on my wrists was alleviated, choking at his actions.
"Don't get me wrong, Kohana Yoruno, I will get you," said the Uchiha forlornly. I heard him pick up his fallen jacket and sling it back on, the disdain in his voice telling me he wasn't joking, or doing this for my good. "I need more time to process that they gave me you, of all people. Disgusting.
"I'll be back tomorrow night. And the night after that, and that night after that. I'll keep coming back to you until they tell me to stop. Until then, do everything I told you to do. I can't let them know I failed on my first night. But I'll tell you this. It will be done by the end of the week."
Without another word, my door opened, and Sasuke exited without another look.
***
I was awoken the next morning by the light sound of my door opening, and was fully alarmed when I realised that I hadn't done anything Sasuke had instructed me to.
Well, what does he expect? I thought to myself grimly as I pulled the bedsheets over myself. However, my heart fluttered in relief when I saw that the figure who had entered my room was none other than Shisui himself. Pain in his eyes at the sight of me curled up in my bed, the Uchiha shut the door behind himself and briskly made his way to my side, bending over and eyeing me over skeptically.
"How are you feeling?" he asked in a rushed whisper, looking for any sign of distress. "How did it go?"
With a small but believable whimper, I slowly sat up, making sure that my legs were completely covered by my dress before throwing the bedsheets off. To be honest, I wasn't sure what to expect, but when I saw Shisui avert his gaze, I knew that he believed it.
"Of course," he said bitterly, shaking his head. "Trust Sasuke to get the job over and done with. I'm sorry, Kohana, but I have to take these sheets upstairs, please don't feel weirded out or anything."
"It's fine," I insisted weakly, pulling my blanket back over my legs and looking at the messy haired Uchiha with tired eyes. "He told me he'd be back tonight. What am I doing today?"
"Not much, I'm afraid," said Shisui, clucking his tongue. "Since Sasuke was assigned as your partner, to make things less awkward between you guys I've been made both your escort and your tutor for the next month or so. I was hoping I could start with you today but judging as last night was your first... I'm okay with just letting you rest for now."
I didn't reply for a while.
"Shisui, how long does this thing with Sasuke have to go on?"
The Uchiha grimaced as he sat on the edge of my bed, staring at the door.
"To begin with, he'll visit every night. By the end of this week his visits will drop to twice a week, and by the third week, you'll only have to see his ugly face once a week. When you... start to show signs, he'll stop coming altogether, and by then I'll really have to hustle with your training. I really hope you aren't the type to suffer from morning sickness, because god knows we need all the time we can get to get you into fighting condition."
"Fighting condition?"
"I know there's something about you Kohana, something special," said Shisui hurriedly, waving his hands in the air. "I want to know what it is! I want to unlock your potential- what if you turn out to be one of the greatest kunoichi of our time?! You're smart, you're capable- the last thing I want right now is for you to get pregnant, but obviously, the rest of my clan don't see eye to eye with me."
"Is that the only reason you're trying to help me?" I asked stiffly, feeling agitated now that I heard Shisui's true motives. "Do you just want to use me as a pawn as well?"
"No, don't think like that," exclaimed Shisui, leaning over and grabbing my hands. "You are an extraordinary person with extraordinary power. I want to teach you how to use that power for yourself... so you don't end up a victim at the hands of someone else. Like you are now. I don't..."
Shisui sighed, and trailed off.
"... I hate watching the strong oppress the weak. Do you know how I feel whenever I go out with Sasuke? Shitty. Because he's strong, and others are weak. Sasuke is one of the strongest shinobi out there at the moment, and not a very nice one at that. My entire clan is like that, even our allies. The strong oppress the weak. That's how the world goes. But I want a world where there are strong people who can fight for the weak, not against them. If you keep all this power hidden and only available to a select few people... then there will always be people who are oppressed. Do you want to know why the Senju were overthrown? Because they were threatening the sanctity of the shinobi way. They knew that there were others out there in the world who possessed chakra and had the ability to become shinobi in their own right. They didn't want the knowledge to remain exclusively within their clans- they wanted to spread it with the world, and that was something my clan didn't want to happen."
"Then why are you all of a sudden recruiting untrained chakra wielders from all around the village? Is the rumour that you're running out of shinobi to fight really true?" I asked skeptically, wondering if there really was truth behind Shisui's words. He grimaced, and lay flat on my bed as he stared glumly at the dull ceiling.
"They want to make Konoha a shinobi village," he answered morosely with a small pout. "All that stuff about us being short of soldiers is rubbish. Our soldiers never lose, so we don't need to replace them. This is just the beginning, Kohana. Soon, you'll be seeing all non-chakra citizens being forced out into different lands and villages, and Konoha will become the strongest military force in the world. With the ancient arts of ninjutsu and genjutsu long forgotten in other lands, they wouldn't stand a chance against us."
"What is this... Kirei na Kodomo project?" My, my, I was full of questions for Shisui.
"We're trying to keep the family lines pure," was his answer. "You're not the only one in it. We have a whole bunch of untrained girls your age going through the same thing you are, some of them with the same guy. It's truly disgusting in my opinion, but the clan's long term goal is to have a thriving population of shinobi offspring that they can train and use to their advantage within the next ten to fifteen years. For short term goals, they've taken the young chakra wielding children out of the orphanages and begun to train them now, so that we can put them out onto the battlefields as soon as possible to experience war firsthand. Either way, our prospects are looking very, very good."
"Where are the Senju in all of this?" I asked. "You said you wanted strong people to fight for the weak- weren't the Senju those people? Where are they now?"
"They were chased out," said Shisui in a depressed tone, making me raise an eyebrow. "God knows where they've gone. They've all dispersed, vanished into thin air. The longer they're gone, the stronger my clan becomes. And I hate it. Everyone in the village hates us- not that it'll matter anyway, because they'll all be expelled eventually. But I hate it. Everything is so unfair. And I don't know why, but I feel like I can right at least a fraction of my clan's wrongs by training you up and hoping you realise the same goals I do."
The Uchiha sighed and sat up, getting to his feet.
"I could rant to you all day, but I need to get you upstairs for breakfast," he said dejectedly, scratching the back of his head. "I'll wait outside for you. Take your time showering and getting ready, I don't mind."
"Shisui," I called as the male began walking away from me. He stopped in his tracks and turned around, eyebrow raised.
"Hmm?"
"Thank you for telling me all this," I said, feeling a little more secure now that I kind of got the gist of what was going on. Shisui merely smiled at me, nodding in acknowledgement.
"Thank you for trusting me," he said. "I'll wait outside. When you're done, I have to strip your bed of the sheets, okay?"
"That's fine."
In spite of my situation, Shisui's mere presence calmed me, and I was grateful towards him for that.
Author's Note: HI GUYS LONG TIME NO SEE :'D It's been over a year since I last updated, but today my brother and I watched Naruto together, I had war flashbacks aaaaaaaaaaand then this happened :') Bete Noire is absolutely one of my favourite stories that I've ever written- to be honest, it is my favourite story to write- and I want to continue it because there's a long journey ahead, and it's not fair to stop it here. I'm sorry to everyone who's been patiently waiting for an update, but I'll let you know that this story isn't dead!! I love it too much to just discontinue it (a la Different). Please look forward to the rest of the story! Chapters for this story aren't easy to write (on average it takes me a good 2 to 3 hours, hence why I couldn't be bothered updating for the past year lol), but I hope I find more motivation as the year progresses! Who knows, I might even start watching anime again lol. DATTEBAYO!!