"Isn't that sweet? The two of us almost barfed out our dinner. Such a shame that would be, the chicken miso ramen was exceptionally delicious. Wasn't it Kabuto?" A man with Long black hair, pale skin and eyes that resembled a snake spoke.
"Yes, Orochimaru-Sama. Your cooking tonight deserves an award." Kabuto replied as he too surfaced out of the dark, his grey hair and bespectacled eyes were dominant in the dark.
"Both of you are wrong." Another calm voice surfaced from the shadows. The very voice that sent shivers down Tenten's spine. Her form of nightmare; Itachi. "The three of us almost barfed out our dinner."
"This is why, Itachi. You should never ever say anything. That has got to be the worst threat line I have ever heard." Airin's exasperated voice could also be heard. Just before they heard Kakashi's loud sigh coming after her.
"Hatake Airin. Hatake Kakashi And Uchihaa Itachi.. Good evening. Pleasure to meet you. I believe you know who these two lovebirds are?" Orochimaru greeted them.
Itachi glared his now red eyes at the duo. Neji had stood up before Tenten protectively as he too, returned the glare using his byakugan.
"One of them is my fiancé and the other is the man whom I would not hesitate to kill.." Itachi started, his entire body was filled with a strong killing aura.
Neji scoffed at Itachi, "Hate me all you want. Just don't do anything to her.."
Itachi started laughing, maniacally. The laughter made Tenten's hair stand on end. It was as scary as having Itachi's mangekyou glare. It seemed that she was not the only one who was afraid; Orochimaru and Kabuto looked slightly apprehensive when they witness what Itachi was doing.
"What was that series that you enjoy watching again? Keeping up with the Kunoichi..?" Orochimaru muttered towards Kabuto.
Kabuto nodded solemnly as he replied, "Episode 3 Season 2 : She is my Girl. Same plot line as what we are viewing before us.. Two men fighting over a single lady.. I still do not know the ending to that episode."
"SILENCE!" Itachi barked as everyone in the forest became absolutely still. Orochimaru looked annoyed at Itachi. He snapped his fingers before both him and Kabuto dived right towards Itachi. Their combined speed were as quick as lightning, a smirk was present on Itachi's face, he turned his body just at the nick of time to have both his opponents looking at him straight into his eyes. He had activated his mangekyou sharingan.
"SHIT!" Orochimaru yelled as he and Kabuto were both literally sucked into another world.
Once they were gone, Itachi turned his face towards the duo who were still perched on the tree branch, "Be a man. Get down from that tree and fight me. You had wanted to spar with me before haven't you? Now is your chance. Fight me to the end. Only one will emerge victorious, the other will die. This world could not have both of us in it."
Neji patted Tenten's arm reassuringly as he jumped down from the tree to face his opponent.
"We don't have to do this. That was a goodbye hug. I will be gone in two days' time.." Neji started but stopped as he evaded Itachi's fireball jutsu.
"Only one of us can claim her. If the other is eliminated then it makes it easier for one of us to claim her solely." Itachi spat out as he created a series of complicated hand signs in a split second and summoned Amaterasu flames which Neji barely managed to dodge.
"She is not an object you asshole!" Neji growled as the anger within him intensified. Neji pictured Itachi physically assaulting Tenten using the word "love" as his lame excuse. The vision of Tenten's bruises arms came into view as he started to rush towards Itachi in his hakke koushou stance.
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Tenten looked worriedly at the two men who were fighting over her. She bit her lip, she did not know what to do. She was afraid of Itachi, he had imparted fear in her for an entire month; every single time she defied him, he would return her the favour. She would be trapped in his genjutsu, a few minutes felt like days in his genjutsu. It hurt like crazy, the first time she was trapped in it, she had to beg him to stop. Subsequently, she got used to the pain, refusing to even beg him for mercy.
The fear disabled her from moving, she was practically glued to the ground in fear. She knew how painful it was and she would not want Neji to have to go through what she had~no. Neji was innocent, his only crime was to love her. Itachi was being an over-possessive jerk who wanted to eliminate any possible competition away from his sight. She looked towards them and noticed that Neji was not fairing too well, he was just burnt by the Amaterasu.
"Shit! He is going to die if he keeps this up!" Tenten thought inwardly as she heard Neji grunted our in pain, biting his lips, holding in the painful scream if he opened up his mouth.
"Enough." Airin's voice surfaced from behind Tenten.
Itachi was not even listening, mangekyou swirled angrily as it focused on its prey; Hyuuga Neji. Itachi had a maniac look on his face, he was smiling as he watched Neji writhed in pain from his attacks, although Neji seemed like he was giving his everything in the fight, he only left a single scratch on Itachi's cheek as opposed to the damage that Itachi had done toward him. In a split second, Airin was standing before Neji, she raised an ice barrier that seemed to prevent Itachi's genjutsu from penetrating through, her back was facing Neji as she did something peculiar. Her entire body glowed in a light blue hue and she slowly transformed before Tenten. It started from her hair, streaks of platinum blonde hair replaced her usual brunette locks. Then her usual oval shaped face became sharper, her eyes were no longer brown but had taken the colour of an angry stormy sky, the lightest shade of grey; almost similar that of a Hyuuga... Airin turned into...
"AIKO-SAN?!" Tenten yelled out in disbelief.
Airin threw Tenten an apologetic look as she turned to face Itachi in her cursed transformation. Itachi heard Tenten yelled out a familiar name as he repeated it.
"Aiko? Why did you call her that?" Itachi asked, clearly confused. "That is Airin-San, in her cursed transformation.."
"It's a Long story Takagi. Will get through the nitty gritty details later as of now.." Airin mused mockingly as she peeked a glance towards Neji who was now crouched down on the ground, mouth filled with his own blood, looking at Airin in disbelief.
"It was you all this while?! You wanted to marry me?!" Neji spat at her in disbelief. Hatake Airin, Hatake Kakashi's Wife, the one he adored, was impersonating as an eligible bachelorette to marry him?! It did not make any sense at all. He did not believe even for a fraction of a moment that was the entire truth. Something was amiss.. Neji abruptly snapped his head towards Airin. It suddenly occured to him; the view of Aiko always whispering to Hiashi. Yes, that pretty much sums up everything. He instantaneously knew what was going on.
"My Uncle.. he was behind it.. Wasn't he..?" Neji spoke slowly as he glared at the back of Airin's now blonde hair.
Airin whose back was still facing him, spoke, "You are one smartass.." her sentence was cut short when Itachi had summon his Amaterasu towards them.
"You double crossed me, Airin-Senpai.." Itachi started, rage laced in his voice, "you were supposed to be my Friend but here you are.. teaming up with another clan to get them together.." Itachi spat as he figured it out.
In seconds, Itachi formed hand seals and summoned Water Dragon Bullet Technique; it charged towards Airin who deflected it using a flick of her hand, it turned completely into ice shattering before them as they exploded and Itachi charged into her in a flurry of shuriken.
"I did it for you!" Airin yelled as she ran head Long towards Itachi, her eyes were firmly shut "I care for you Itachi. I thought that by getting Tenten into the picture would make you a better person, I thought she shared the same feelings as you. But I was wrong! She was confused at that time. And now you are hurting her!" Airin had summoned her ice soldiers, they slowly emerged from the ground and started to Attack Itachi.
Itachi dodged her attacks with immense precision, but Airin's ice attacks were relentlessly focusing on him as a target. Despite being slightly sloppy due to her pregnancy, he could not get anywhere near her, the worst part was that she had completely closed her eyes, obstructing him from administering his mangekyou.
"That's it! She is watching the fight from another angle!" Itachi thought inwardly. "She is watching the fight through the eyes of someone else."
Itachi quickly manoeuvred himself to face Kakashi, whose sharingan was blazing furiously, but just as Itachi predicted, at the very last moment, Airin has encapsulated Kakashi in her ice dome. Itachi wasted no time and charged straight towards Tenten next. He wanted to take down as many of Airin's potential "eyes" as he could in order to defeat her. Airin needed to look into his eyes. Before Airin could even bring up her ice dome to protect Tenten from Itachi's wrath, a figure jumped right between Itachi and Tenten; Neji.
Itachi smirked as he yelled out, "Amaterasu!"
"No!" Airin and Tenten yelled out desperately. But it was too late, Neji was writhing in pain before her.
"Pathetic." Itachi cursed Neji as he stopped his Attack and watched his lying form trembling due to excessive lost of blood. He was again, lying in his own pool of blood, "What is it that you see in him, I would never understand."
Tenten was kneeling down swiftly next to Neji's form, tears started streaming down her face. She carefully placed Neji's head on her lap as she whispered gently, "I am so sorry." She wiped off her tears as she said, "Airin-San. Take care of him for me?"
Airin's face went pale in shock as she gasped, "Tenten! Don't! That's suicide!"
Tenten had already left Neji's body and had charged straight towards Itachi.
"Don't." Neji called out weakly but was hushed by Airin.
"Stay still. You are extremely close to dying. I can heal you." Airin scolded Neji sternly, by this time, Kakashi had already made his way towards them, he held on to Airin's arm.
"Your breathing is abnormal, what is wrong?" Kakashi asked her, when she looked away he replied to his own question, "You are in pain."
"Don't..Heal..Me.." Neji said through uneven breaths.
"She still will do it. Therefore..Take it." Kakashi said simply.
"Kakashi.." Airin whispered gently.
"No. Sorry babe. Not listening to you this time. I can see it with my sharingan. The pain you are having are contractions. You are giving birth and you will die if you do not take in my chakra. I have not engaged in a battle, I have plenty. Take mine. Heal him. I need to take you back to the hospital.." Kakashi ordered simply.
Airin sighed as her hand glowed a different colour this time, silver instead of gold, she was taking Kakashi's chakra, Kakashi looked paler by the minute. Airin stopped sucking in his chakra when it had reached his emergency chakra reserves and did the most peculiar thing, she kissed Neji, on the lips.
"Don't get your hopes up buddy," Kakashi panted as he spoke to Neji, "She is just healing you."
Neji merely rolled his eyes, Airin's healing powers were amazing. His strength started to increase within seconds, it was extremely soothing until~ "Shit!" Airin yelled out loud. "My water bag just burst. The two of you will have to be my midwives. It is happening now."
At the same time, Neji could hear Tenten's painful screams from the back, he got up from his lying position and cried out, "Tenten!"
Kakashi exclaimed, "Just go. I will be fine. I will receive the baby."
Neji bolted right away to Tenten's aid.
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