Rima’s p.o.v
Sasuke and I headed back to the others while keeping a rather large distance between us. I still couldn’t get over the fact that my father read that...that, ugh I didn’t know what to call what was in that book but it sure as hell wasn’t literature.
It was just as well we did too. As we rounded the rock I spotted Grey Hair, what was his name? Next to them with his hand holding Naruto’s, preventing him from opening the scroll.
I held back as Sasuke hurried forward to them and waited in case this was a trap. I didn’t trust four eyes.
Why is the Blob in his underwear? I turned away from him and snatched a waddling Dawn by the scruff of her neck. She yowled and clawed at me as I caught Shadow as well and unceremoniously dumped them into the stream.
“Sober up,” I ordered pushing them back in when they tried to get out. I didn’t listen to the chit chat my team was having with poindexter over there. My eyes kept flickering around searching for something that wasn’t there.
Something hit my thigh and I glanced down to see my hand trembling badly. I held it up and frowned. This wasn’t like me. I wasn’t the type to get nervous with a threat looming in. I’d handle enough missions to be totally detached and cold during them. So why was I trembling now?
Was Orochimaru that much of a threat that I was beginning to feel my fear sink in now? Was the Hokage right to assume I was in danger?
I shook my head and glanced over at Sasuke. No, it’s not me he wants.
“You two done?” I asked the pups as they flopped onto the rock next to me.
“Why are you so cruel?” Dawn wondered.
“Because it’s who I am,” I muttered eyeing the trees across the river. I could feel someone watching us. Anbu, maybe?
Shadow stood and shook the water off, I didn’t flinch as it fell on me. I didn’t move at all. My whole body felt attuned to something I couldn’t see. I could feel an underlying current of bloodlust flowing through the air.
It was coming for deep within the forest close to the -
“Hold on,” Sasuke’s voice cut through my concentration and I turned with a growl to see him facing what’s-his-face. “I’ll fight you for it.”
Oh for-, I cut off my thought with a sharp shake of my head and stormed over with my pups following. This was just a waste of time.
“You’ll fight me for it?” Four eyes repeated.
“Isn’t that what he just said? Aren’t you supposed to be smart? God-” Sakura flicked my ear stopping me from saying anything else and I frowned at her.
“Hold on a second, is this a joke or what?” Naruto asked.
“Put on clothes dude,” Dawn grumbled.
“Are you serious?” what was his name asked.
“Perfectly, sorry but I don’t have time to play nice,” Sasuke replied.
“Tough guy act doesn’t suit you,” Shadow noted.
“Sadly it’s not an act,” I muttered back folding my arms and tuning them out.
Absentmindedly I rubbed my stomach as I gazed about. My body was still healing slowly and the sand was still press tightly there. I wondered was it going to vanish into my body or fall free when I was fully healed.
“You’re lying, come on admit it. For all your tough talk, your heart really isn’t in it,” four eyes was annoying me or maybe I was just on edge I dunno, but I do know that I blurred and appeared behind him with a kunai at his throat.
“He may not be in it but I am,” I purred as he stiffened. “Tell me why I shouldn’t kill you now and take it?”
“Rima!” Sakura gasped.
“Stop it! Let Kabuto go!” Naruto shout and I growled at him.
“I’ve been on countless missions Naruto, you can’t trust anyone. Those who help you are more than likely the ones who are behind the crime, they play nice and innocent in order to throw you off track. You are so gullible that you believe them and that will get you killed one day,” I spat. “I’ve learned the hard way never to trust a kind face.”
“I’ve done research on you Rima,” Kabuto said. I felt the kunai move as he swallowed. “One mission went wrong and you lost a friend.”
“Because we were to stupid and naive, we trusted someone we shouldn’t have and it got her killed,” I snarled. “I’ll never make that mistake again. I don’t trust you, you could be the soundest guy on earth with no ulterior motive but until this is over I don’t care.”
“You’re cautious, I admire that,” he replied completely stunning me. Who the hell compliments his attacker when they have a kunai at their throat? “Because of that I’ll show you the path you need to follow, if you’ll let me.”
“I vote for killing him,” Dawn chirped.
“Hush!” Sakura snapped.
“Let him go, Rima,” Uchiha said and I waited for a prolonged moment, letting them know I didn’t like this before easing back away from Kabuto.
“But let’s go, it’s best we get out of here the smell of the cooking fire is going to draw every wild beast in the forest and not only animals but the competition too,” Kabuto said turning his back to me.
I was tempted to just stab him there and then just to prove that it was dangerous to turn you back on people you didn’t know. Especially those who didn’t trust you.
He walked off with Sakura and Naruto trailing after him. I hesitated with shadow and Dawn next to me. “I don’t like this,” I muttered.
“Let’s go,” Sasuke ordered.
“Shut it pig face,” I snapped back and he stilled.
His arm lashed out and captured mine. I rounded with a snarl and his onyx eyes widened a fraction. Suddenly shadow jumped between us causing Uchiha to move back. I barred my teeth and yanked free of him.
“What is wrong with you?” He questioned.
“I... I don’t know,” I stumbled back a step and suddenly my ribs and stomach were on fire. It spread through my blood reaching my heart and clenching around it.
My breath lodged in my throat cutting off a scream as my legs buckled. Sasuke lunged forward and caught me, pulling me to his chest as my eyesight started to fade.
“Rima? Rima!” he tapped my cheeks and cursed. “You’re burning up! What’s going on?!”
My head flopped back, eyes unseeing. Darkness descended like a hoard of bees, along with a buzzing in my ears as the fire spread through my whole body and my mind lost its battle to consciousness leaving a freaked out Uchiha and two rather calm pups who didn’t seem at all surprise by this turn of events.
**M**
A kunai zipped past me where I hid, scratching my cheek and blowing my hair from my face. I yelp and fell onto my butt hearing an amused chuckle from behind me.
“Ri-Ri, you need to learn to pay better attention to your surroundings,” he admonished lightly but I heard the disapproving tone in his voice.
“Sorry, Itachi-sama,” I mumbled staring at my hands. There was a funny mark on the inside wrist of my right one, I scratched it idly.
I heard his soft sigh and he crouched in front of me. “Hey, you’ll get it someday,” he promised ruffling my hair. “How about we try again?”
“Yeah!”
He chuckled again at my eagerness as I jumped to my feet and raced off.
~~
Racing through the streets with my chubby little legs, I waved to people I passed and shouted hellos. They giggled and cooed at the cute little three year that was me until I caught sight of a certain someone before me.
“RIMA-IMA! GIVE ME A HUG!”
“Uh-oh,” I mumbled and turned sprinting down an alley as fast as my little legs could carry me but sadly I wasn’t fast enough.
I was swooped up off the ground and crushed into a breath stealing hug. I hung limply in his arms as he hugged me.
“Lemme go Uncle,” I whined.
“But Rima-ima,” Gai pouted at me and I wriggled out of his grasp and ran off again. “RIMA-IMA! COME BACK!”
“NEVER!” I screamed holding back giggles as I ran.
I stumbled over nothing and tripped. I rolled on the ground and held my knee, it stung. “Ow,” I mumbled seeing blood ooze from the scrape.
The mark on my wrist, looking like a bunch of intricate lines knotted together tingled and glowed slightly and my knee got warm. I gasped as the blood flowed back into the broken skin which then closed by itself.
I frowned at my knee before shrugging and hopping to my feet, racing off again. Once I got to the Academy I skipped over to the swing under the tree and sat on it, kicking my feet out waiting.
“Ri-Ri?”
I glanced up into the familiar pair of onyx eyes and grinned. “Sassy?!”
The three year old boy scowled at me. “That’s not my name!”
“Yes it is!”
“No!”
“Yes!”
“No!”
“No!”
“Yes!”
“Ha! Gotcha!” I giggled and he glared at me while his mother and mine strolled through the gate. “MOMMY!”
“Rima,” Yuri stroked my hair as I cashed into her legs. “I told you not to race ahead.”
“I’m fine,” I babbled. “But Mommy, I fell and cut my knee then it went poof!”
She stiffened subtly, her hand stilling on my head. She shared an unreadable look with Sasuke’s Mommy before shooing me over to him.
“Get off,” I ordered because he was sitting on the swing.
“No,” he replied with a cheeky grin.
“I’ll hit you, Sassy,” I warned.
“My name is Sasuke, not Sassy!” he shouted as I was whisked off my feet when I lunged at him.
“Ri-Ri, be nice,” Itachi said hoisting me up more and holding me.
I stuck my tongue out at his baby brother and Itachi flicked my ear. Sasuke chuckled and hugged his brother. I used that opportunity to pull his hair.
“Hey!” he shouted.
“Gotcha!” I screamed back pointing at him.
Itachi grabbed my hand in his preventing me from poking Sasuke. He turned my wrist over and ran his finger over the mark before giving me a look.
We headed home, our mommy’s walking and chatting away while Sassy and I ran ahead, racing against each other.
“I won!” he declared when he stopped outside the Uchiha compound. Mommy and I had to pass it in order to get home to Daddy.
“No fair,” I pouted folding my arms.
“Life isn’t fair, Ri-Ri,” Itachi said ruffling my hair.
Little did I know that that sentence would be the defining of my life, that it was what I referred to every time something went wrong, starting after my mother’s death and with Itachi betraying everyone who loved him, even me.
**M**
I came to in someone’s arms and jerked violently, falling out of their grasp to the earth on my hands and knees. I retched and choked as blood flowed out of my mouth. I vomited up more and more blood as the others began to freak.
“Rima!” Sakura cried.
“What do we do?” Naruto asked stepping away from me.
My fingers dug into the dirt as I panted and Sasuke knelt by me. He pulled my hair back and peered at me. Shadow brushed against me with a whine.
“I know medical ninjutsu,” Kabuto claimed advancing. “Let me have a look.” He crouched by us and went to touch me.
Threat, It was hissed in my mind by a deep growling voice and I agreed with it. I vaulted back away from him and growled.
Shadow and Dawn sensed my distress and jumped in front of me baring their fangs at him as I hunched over and curled my arms protectively around my stomach.
“Don’t touch me!” I shouted when someone tried to get closer.
“Rima? What is wrong?” Sakura asked worried.
“Give me a moment,” I muttered, flipping my right hand over to expose my wrist. There was no mark there so why in the memories was there one?
“What happened?” Kabuto questioned and I glanced up through my hair to see him eyeing me with a glint in his eyes.
“I don’t know,” I told the ground as my stomach heaved and I gagged.
Dawn whimpered softly and I scratched her behind the ears in a form of silent reassurance. I did the same to Shadow who licked my hand before forcing my aching limbs to move as I stood.
I frowned at Sasuke as he swayed lightly and grabbed Sakura’s arm shoving her to him. “Help him.”
He went to protest but she was all for it and quickly put his arm over her shoulder while putting her around his waist. I stumbled and Naruto caught me without a word. I leaned against him for a moment before straightening and eyeing Kabuto.
“Shall we go?”
“B-but what about you?” Naruto asked.
“I’m fine,” I told him. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Rima-.”
I cut Sakura off with a pointed look before slanting my eyes to Kabuto quickly. Her head bobbed in a nod but her eyes said we’d speak about what happened later.
“Hey Rima!” The Blob hollered in my ear.
My eye twitched in annoyance and my fist clenched. “I’m right here Naruto,” I said through gritted teeth.
He smiled sheepishly and held up two scrolls triumphantly. “We got the other scroll!”
“Really? Good.”
“Don’t you want to know how?”
“Not right now, Naruto. We need to get to the tower and I need to see a Medic,” I answered honestly.
My stomach was in knots and the muscles around my torso were cramping, something wasn’t right. We started walking, Sakura helping Sasuke while Naruto stayed closed to me. I glanced over at the Uchiha and furrowed my brows, why had I remembered that day? I wondered, did he remember who I was?
At the tower we separated from Kabuto and I released a relieved sigh before slumping against Naruto. There was no need to act alright from now on. We headed through our assigned door and after a few steps inside I lowered myself gently to the ground, leaning forward and putting my head between my bent legs while taking deep breaths.
“What’s the deal? There’s nobody here,” Naruto pointed out.
Sasuke eased away from Sakura who seemed reluctant to let him go. “It’s Ok Sakura, I can manage.”
“Oh sure,” she said weirdly with a little creepy smile.
“Huh? I don’t get it, what happens now?” Naruto asked.
Naruto and Sakura both took a scroll each and with painstakingly slow moves peeled them open. After catching only a glimpse of the words I scurried back away from them. Sasuke ordered them to get rid of the scrolls and they threw them away just as smoke began to billow as the summoning was activated.
“Hey, long time no see uh?” came a familiar voice from the smoke.
“Iruka? Why couldn’t they send a medical ninja,” I grumbled and he glanced at him. His eyes flew open and I shrugged.
“Iruka-sensei?” Sakura said before he could ask.
“Looks like you’ve gone through a lot in this test,” he noted, glancing at me again.
A sudden wave of nausea hit me and I double over. Their voices were a background buzz compared to the ringing in my ears and I bit my lip to stifle a groan. Shadow whined and nudged my hand while Dawn licked the other.
“I think I’m dying,” I muttered causing them to whimper.
Another burst of fire spread from my stomach and I clawed at the ground as pain followed. My nails dug into the concrete leaving deep marks in their wake. I gasped as my broken wrist cracked and twisted, the skin splitting open and closing repeatedly as the bones were forced back into proper position.
All this happened in quiet as the others talked to their old teacher. I was thankful that they didn’t realise what was happening to me because one, I didn’t know myself and two, I felt close to tears and was scared. I didn’t need them knowing.
Taking shallow breaths, I tried to use my chakra to dull the pain but nothing happened. I frowned and did a few quick hand signs for a clone but again nothing happened. That’s when I began to truly panic.
Had Orochimaru done something? Or did Kabuto do something while I was out? What’s happening to me? The questions rattled my mind and I couldn’t come up with a single answer logical or not.
“Hey.”
I jerked and winced looking up at Sasuke. “What?”
He blinked at me. I hadn’t meant for it to be so harsh but with the rising pain and my chakra not responding, I really couldn’t care.
“We’re going,” was all he said after a tense moment before stalking off after the others leaving me on my own.
I stood slowly and with alot of wincing. Gasping, I fisted my hands in the material of my top and clenched them over my stomach as another bout of agony laced through me.
“Shit,” I cried doubling over and would have collapsed back to my knees if a pair of arms hadn’t snuck around me and pulled me close.
“Rima?”
I tried to push away from him. I didn’t like this. I didn’t want help. I wasn’t use to being this weak. “Let go,” I whispered but his arms only tightened around me.
“Stop fighting me,” Sasuke growled. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” I muttered.
“Right, so you casually double over crying in pain for the hell of us?” he couldn’t have possible fitted more sarcasm in that sentence even if he’d tried.
“Leave me alone,” I growled shoving him away with brutal force. He skidded and righted himself before he could fall and rounded on me eyes hard but the widened in shock as they fell to my torso.
“Rima,” he murmured as I looked down to see blood dripping from the bandages and sliding down my legs to the floor.
“Oh look at that,” my voice sounded too breathy and a little hysterical. Blood lost, I bet. “We should get going,” I continued and strolled past him.
Sasuke caught my arm and I whirled with a snarl, fist raised only to stop and gawked at him. He blinked at me and tightened his hold on my arm.
“Sasuke? What’s happening to me?” I whispered as he looped my arm around his shoulders and lead me, well dragged me out of the room, not answering me.
We entered another room and formed lines with the other remaining genin facing the Hokage and some jounin. In our line I stood before Sasuke swaying slightly. His hands reached out and gripped me by the waist holding me still.
“First of all congratulations on finishing the second exam,” Anko called out. “Before I continued, I would like to inform you that during this exam there was a Chunin among you.”
“What? Why?!” Sakura shouted out above the rest.
“Why? For the simple reason of making sure nothing went totally wrong and to protect you,” I scoffed at her response.
“Protect us?” Kiba repeated.
“From what?” Lee called.
“Hopefully you’ll never have to know,” Anko answered. “Now, would you please step forward.”
Everyone glanced at each other waiting for the Chunin to break ranks. I tugged free of Sasuke, dodging when he went to grab me again and straightened, showing no signs of weakness.
I don’t know who was more shocked, my father or my team, when I was the one who walked out of line and went up the steps to the Hokage.
“Rima?!”
I smirked back at Naruto over my shoulder. “I told you, you ain’t seen nothing yet.”
“Rima?” The Hokage murmured around his pipe. “What happened?”
“Orochimaru,” I breathed and he bobbed his head in a form of nod but the worry didn’t leave his eyes.
I moved over to stand just in front of Ibiki keeping the smirk firmly on my lips as I gazed down at the genin.
My stomach cramped just as another wave of fire and agony hit and I hissed in a breath leaning back into my uncle, who put a hand on my shoulder. I met Sasuke’s eyes to find them fixed on me, well on the rapidly growing pool at my feet. I shook my head at him and he glared.
Taking my eyes off him I met another pair, from a sound jounin. I stilled, there was something about this guy, something familiar.
As the Hokage talked, Kakashi moved over to me and stepped in the puddle. His eyes shot open and I quirked my lips at him as my body was beginning to feel rather odd.
“Rima?” He whispered harshly. “What happened? Where are you hurt?”
“Impaled,” I breathed.
He sucked in a sharp breath and looked behind me to Ibiki. “Get her to the hospital,” he snarled as his hand touched my cheek gently.
“Dad, watch Sasuke,” I urged, knowing something was different about him. What had I missed?
Ibiki lifted me into his arms and without a word puffed us away to the hospital where I stopped fighting and felling into restless sleep for the second time.
**************************************************************
Ok, the ending isn't the best. I know. I had this great idea for it but I just couldn't get it down right and eventually gave up. :P
What do you guys think of the memories? Or more importantly, what is happening to Rima??
Comment,
Vote XD